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1 | @c \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*- |
2 | @c Uncomment 1st line before texing this file alone. | |
3 | @c %**start of header | |
acaf905b | 4 | @c Copyright (C) 1995, 2001-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
4009494e | 5 | @c |
4009494e GM |
6 | @setfilename gnus-faq.info |
7 | @settitle Frequently Asked Questions | |
8 | @c %**end of header | |
9 | @c | |
10 | ||
11 | @node Frequently Asked Questions | |
12 | @section Frequently Asked Questions | |
13 | ||
14 | @menu | |
91af3942 | 15 | * FAQ - Changes:: |
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16 | * FAQ - Introduction:: About Gnus and this FAQ. |
17 | * FAQ 1 - Installation FAQ:: Installation of Gnus. | |
18 | * FAQ 2 - Startup / Group buffer:: Start up questions and the | |
19 | first buffer Gnus shows you. | |
20 | * FAQ 3 - Getting Messages:: Making Gnus read your mail | |
21 | and news. | |
22 | * FAQ 4 - Reading messages:: How to efficiently read | |
23 | messages. | |
24 | * FAQ 5 - Composing messages:: Composing mails or Usenet | |
25 | postings. | |
26 | * FAQ 6 - Old messages:: Importing, archiving, | |
27 | searching and deleting messages. | |
28 | * FAQ 7 - Gnus in a dial-up environment:: Reading mail and news while | |
29 | offline. | |
30 | * FAQ 8 - Getting help:: When this FAQ isn't enough. | |
31 | * FAQ 9 - Tuning Gnus:: How to make Gnus faster. | |
32 | * FAQ - Glossary:: Terms used in the FAQ | |
33 | explained. | |
34 | @end menu | |
35 | ||
36 | @subheading Abstract | |
37 | ||
38 | This is the new Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list. | |
4009494e | 39 | |
91af3942 | 40 | Please submit features and suggestions to the |
66627fa9 | 41 | @email{ding@@gnus.org, ding list}. |
4009494e GM |
42 | |
43 | @node FAQ - Changes | |
44 | @subheading Changes | |
45 | ||
46 | ||
47 | ||
48 | @itemize @bullet | |
49 | ||
50 | @item | |
2b968687 MB |
51 | 2008-06-15: Adjust for message-fill-column. Add x-face-file. |
52 | Clarify difference between ding and gnu.emacs.gnus. Remove | |
53 | reference to discontinued service. | |
54 | ||
55 | @item | |
56 | 2006-04-15: Added tip on how to delete sent buffer on exit. | |
4009494e GM |
57 | @end itemize |
58 | ||
59 | @node FAQ - Introduction | |
60 | @subheading Introduction | |
61 | ||
62 | This is the Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list. | |
63 | ||
64 | Gnus is a Usenet Newsreader and Electronic Mail User Agent implemented | |
65 | as a part of Emacs. It's been around in some form for almost a decade | |
66 | now, and has been distributed as a standard part of Emacs for much of | |
67 | that time. Gnus 5 is the latest (and greatest) incarnation. The | |
68 | original version was called GNUS, and was written by Masanobu UMEDA. | |
69 | When autumn crept up in '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and | |
70 | decided to rewrite Gnus. | |
71 | ||
72 | Its biggest strength is the fact that it is extremely | |
73 | customizable. It is somewhat intimidating at first glance, but | |
74 | most of the complexity can be ignored until you're ready to take | |
75 | advantage of it. If you receive a reasonable volume of e-mail | |
76 | (you're on various mailing lists), or you would like to read | |
77 | high-volume mailing lists but cannot keep up with them, or read | |
78 | high volume newsgroups or are just bored, then Gnus is what you | |
79 | want. | |
80 | ||
81 | This FAQ was maintained by Justin Sheehy until March 2002. He | |
82 | would like to thank Steve Baur and Per Abrahamsen for doing a wonderful | |
83 | job with this FAQ before him. We would like to do the same - thanks, | |
84 | Justin! | |
85 | ||
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86 | This version is much nicer than the unofficial hypertext |
87 | versions that are archived at Utrecht, Oxford, Smart Pages, Ohio | |
88 | State, and other FAQ archives. See the resources question below | |
89 | if you want information on obtaining it in another format. | |
90 | ||
91 | The information contained here was compiled with the assistance | |
92 | of the Gnus development mailing list, and any errors or | |
66627fa9 | 93 | misprints are the Gnus team's fault, sorry. |
4009494e GM |
94 | |
95 | @node FAQ 1 - Installation FAQ | |
96 | @subsection Installation FAQ | |
97 | ||
98 | @menu | |
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99 | * FAQ 1-1:: What is the latest version of Gnus? |
100 | * FAQ 1-2:: What's new in 5.10? | |
101 | * FAQ 1-3:: Where and how to get Gnus? | |
102 | * FAQ 1-4:: What to do with the tarball now? | |
103 | * FAQ 1-5:: I sometimes read references to No Gnus and Oort Gnus, | |
104 | what are those? | |
105 | * FAQ 1-6:: Which version of Emacs do I need? | |
106 | * FAQ 1-7:: How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs? | |
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107 | @end menu |
108 | ||
2b968687 | 109 | @node FAQ 1-1 |
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110 | @subsubheading Question 1.1 |
111 | ||
112 | What is the latest version of Gnus? | |
113 | ||
114 | @subsubheading Answer | |
115 | ||
116 | Jingle please: Gnus 5.10 is released, get it while it's | |
117 | hot! As well as the step in version number is rather | |
118 | small, Gnus 5.10 has tons of new features which you | |
c7ff939a | 119 | shouldn't miss. The current release (5.13) should be at |
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120 | least as stable as the latest release of the 5.8 series. |
121 | ||
2b968687 | 122 | @node FAQ 1-2 |
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123 | @subsubheading Question 1.2 |
124 | ||
125 | What's new in 5.10? | |
126 | ||
127 | @subsubheading Answer | |
128 | ||
129 | First of all, you should have a look into the file | |
130 | GNUS-NEWS in the toplevel directory of the Gnus tarball, | |
131 | there the most important changes are listed. Here's a | |
132 | short list of the changes I find especially | |
133 | important/interesting: | |
134 | ||
135 | @itemize @bullet | |
136 | ||
137 | @item | |
138 | Major rewrite of the Gnus agent, Gnus agent is now | |
139 | active by default. | |
140 | ||
141 | @item | |
142 | Many new article washing functions for dealing with | |
143 | ugly formatted articles. | |
144 | ||
145 | @item | |
146 | Anti Spam features. | |
147 | ||
148 | @item | |
149 | Message-utils now included in Gnus. | |
150 | ||
151 | @item | |
152 | New format specifiers for summary lines, e.g. %B for | |
153 | a complex trn-style thread tree. | |
154 | @end itemize | |
155 | ||
2b968687 | 156 | @node FAQ 1-3 |
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157 | @subsubheading Question 1.3 |
158 | ||
159 | Where and how to get Gnus? | |
160 | ||
161 | @subsubheading Answer | |
162 | ||
163 | Gnus is released independent from releases of Emacs and XEmacs. | |
44e97401 | 164 | Therefore, the version bundled with Emacs or the version in XEmacs's |
4009494e | 165 | package system might not be up to date (e.g. Gnus 5.9 bundled with Emacs |
2b968687 | 166 | 21 is outdated). |
4009494e | 167 | You can get the latest released version of Gnus from |
2b968687 | 168 | @uref{http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz} |
91af3942 | 169 | or via anonymous FTP from |
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170 | @uref{ftp://ftp.gnus.org/pub/gnus/gnus.tar.gz}. |
171 | ||
2b968687 | 172 | @node FAQ 1-4 |
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173 | @subsubheading Question 1.4 |
174 | ||
175 | What to do with the tarball now? | |
176 | ||
177 | @subsubheading Answer | |
178 | ||
91af3942 | 179 | Untar it via @samp{tar xvzf gnus.tar.gz} and do the common |
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180 | @samp{./configure; make; make install} circle. |
181 | (under MS-Windows either get the Cygwin environment from | |
182 | @uref{http://www.cygwin.com} | |
183 | which allows you to do what's described above or unpack the | |
184 | tarball with some packer (e.g. Winace from | |
185 | @uref{http://www.winace.com}) | |
186 | and use the batch-file make.bat included in the tarball to install | |
187 | Gnus.) If you don't want to (or aren't allowed to) install Gnus | |
188 | system-wide, you can install it in your home directory and add the | |
189 | following lines to your ~/.xemacs/init.el or ~/.emacs: | |
190 | ||
191 | @example | |
192 | (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/gnus/lisp") | |
193 | (if (featurep 'xemacs) | |
194 | (add-to-list 'Info-directory-list "/path/to/gnus/texi/") | |
195 | (add-to-list 'Info-default-directory-list "/path/to/gnus/texi/")) | |
196 | @end example | |
197 | @noindent | |
198 | ||
199 | Make sure that you don't have any Gnus related stuff | |
200 | before this line, on MS Windows use something like | |
201 | "C:/path/to/lisp" (yes, "/"). | |
202 | ||
2b968687 | 203 | @node FAQ 1-5 |
4009494e GM |
204 | @subsubheading Question 1.5 |
205 | ||
206 | I sometimes read references to No Gnus and Oort Gnus, | |
207 | what are those? | |
208 | ||
209 | @subsubheading Answer | |
210 | ||
211 | Oort Gnus was the name of the development version of | |
212 | Gnus, which became Gnus 5.10 in autumn 2003. No Gnus is | |
213 | the name of the current development version which will | |
214 | once become Gnus 5.12 or Gnus 6. (If you're wondering why | |
215 | not 5.11, the odd version numbers are normally used for | |
216 | the Gnus versions bundled with Emacs) | |
217 | ||
2b968687 | 218 | @node FAQ 1-6 |
4009494e GM |
219 | @subsubheading Question 1.6 |
220 | ||
221 | Which version of Emacs do I need? | |
222 | ||
223 | @subsubheading Answer | |
224 | ||
225 | Gnus 5.10 requires an Emacs version that is greater than or equal | |
226 | to Emacs 20.7 or XEmacs 21.1. | |
227 | The development versions of Gnus (aka No Gnus) requires Emacs 21 | |
228 | or XEmacs 21.4. | |
229 | ||
2b968687 | 230 | @node FAQ 1-7 |
4009494e GM |
231 | @subsubheading Question 1.7 |
232 | ||
233 | How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs? | |
234 | ||
235 | @subsubheading Answer | |
236 | ||
237 | You can't use the same copy of Gnus in both as the Lisp | |
238 | files are byte-compiled to a format which is different | |
239 | depending on which Emacs did the compilation. Get one copy | |
240 | of Gnus for Emacs and one for XEmacs. | |
241 | ||
242 | @node FAQ 2 - Startup / Group buffer | |
243 | @subsection Startup / Group buffer | |
244 | ||
245 | @menu | |
2b968687 MB |
246 | * FAQ 2-1:: Every time I start Gnus I get a message "Gnus auto-save |
247 | file exists. Do you want to read it?", what does this mean and | |
248 | how to prevent it? | |
249 | * FAQ 2-2:: Gnus doesn't remember which groups I'm subscribed to, | |
250 | what's this? | |
251 | * FAQ 2-3:: How to change the format of the lines in Group buffer? | |
252 | * FAQ 2-4:: My group buffer becomes a bit crowded, is there a way to | |
253 | sort my groups into categories so I can easier browse through | |
254 | them? | |
255 | * FAQ 2-5:: How to manually sort the groups in Group buffer? How to | |
256 | sort the groups in a topic? | |
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257 | @end menu |
258 | ||
2b968687 | 259 | @node FAQ 2-1 |
4009494e GM |
260 | @subsubheading Question 2.1 |
261 | ||
262 | Every time I start Gnus I get a message "Gnus auto-save | |
263 | file exists. Do you want to read it?", what does this mean | |
264 | and how to prevent it? | |
265 | ||
266 | @subsubheading Answer | |
267 | ||
268 | This message means that the last time you used Gnus, it | |
a98edce9 JB |
269 | wasn't properly exited and therefore couldn't write its |
270 | information to disk (e.g. which messages you read), you | |
271 | are now asked if you want to restore that information | |
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272 | from the auto-save file. |
273 | ||
274 | To prevent this message make sure you exit Gnus | |
275 | via @samp{q} in group buffer instead of | |
276 | just killing Emacs. | |
277 | ||
2b968687 | 278 | @node FAQ 2-2 |
4009494e GM |
279 | @subsubheading Question 2.2 |
280 | ||
281 | Gnus doesn't remember which groups I'm subscribed to, | |
282 | what's this? | |
283 | ||
284 | @subsubheading Answer | |
285 | ||
286 | You get the message described in the q/a pair above while | |
287 | starting Gnus, right? It's an other symptom for the same | |
288 | problem, so read the answer above. | |
289 | ||
2b968687 | 290 | @node FAQ 2-3 |
4009494e GM |
291 | @subsubheading Question 2.3 |
292 | ||
293 | How to change the format of the lines in Group buffer? | |
294 | ||
295 | @subsubheading Answer | |
296 | ||
297 | You've got to tweak the value of the variable | |
298 | gnus-group-line-format. See the manual node "Group Line | |
299 | Specification" for information on how to do this. An | |
300 | example for this (guess from whose .gnus :-)): | |
301 | ||
302 | @example | |
303 | (setq gnus-group-line-format "%P%M%S[%5t]%5y : %(%g%)\n") | |
304 | @end example | |
305 | @noindent | |
306 | ||
2b968687 | 307 | @node FAQ 2-4 |
4009494e GM |
308 | @subsubheading Question 2.4 |
309 | ||
310 | My group buffer becomes a bit crowded, is there a way to | |
311 | sort my groups into categories so I can easier browse | |
312 | through them? | |
313 | ||
314 | @subsubheading Answer | |
315 | ||
316 | Gnus offers the topic mode, it allows you to sort your | |
317 | groups in, well, topics, e.g. all groups dealing with | |
318 | Linux under the topic linux, all dealing with music under | |
319 | the topic music and all dealing with scottish music under | |
320 | the topic scottish which is a subtopic of music. | |
321 | ||
322 | To enter topic mode, just hit t while in Group buffer. Now | |
323 | you can use @samp{T n} to create a topic | |
324 | at point and @samp{T m} to move a group to | |
325 | a specific topic. For more commands see the manual or the | |
326 | menu. You might want to include the %P specifier at the | |
327 | beginning of your gnus-group-line-format variable to have | |
328 | the groups nicely indented. | |
329 | ||
2b968687 | 330 | @node FAQ 2-5 |
4009494e GM |
331 | @subsubheading Question 2.5 |
332 | ||
333 | How to manually sort the groups in Group buffer? How to | |
334 | sort the groups in a topic? | |
335 | ||
336 | @subsubheading Answer | |
337 | ||
338 | Move point over the group you want to move and | |
339 | hit @samp{C-k}, now move point to the | |
340 | place where you want the group to be and | |
341 | hit @samp{C-y}. | |
342 | ||
343 | @node FAQ 3 - Getting Messages | |
344 | @subsection Getting Messages | |
345 | ||
346 | @menu | |
91af3942 | 347 | * FAQ 3-1:: I just installed Gnus, started it via @samp{M-x gnus} |
2b968687 MB |
348 | but it only says "nntp (news) open error", what to do? |
349 | * FAQ 3-2:: I'm working under Windows and have no idea what | |
350 | ~/.gnus.el means. | |
351 | * FAQ 3-3:: My news server requires authentication, how to store | |
352 | user name and password on disk? | |
353 | * FAQ 3-4:: Gnus seems to start up OK, but I can't find out how to | |
354 | subscribe to a group. | |
355 | * FAQ 3-5:: Gnus doesn't show all groups / Gnus says I'm not allowed | |
356 | to post on this server as well as I am, what's that? | |
357 | * FAQ 3-6:: I want Gnus to fetch news from several servers, is this | |
358 | possible? | |
359 | * FAQ 3-7:: And how about local spool files? | |
360 | * FAQ 3-8:: OK, reading news works now, but I want to be able to | |
361 | read my mail with Gnus, too. How to do it? | |
362 | * FAQ 3-9:: And what about IMAP? | |
363 | * FAQ 3-10:: At the office we use one of those MS Exchange servers, | |
364 | can I use Gnus to read my mail from it? | |
365 | * FAQ 3-11:: Can I tell Gnus not to delete the mails on the server it | |
366 | retrieves via POP3? | |
4009494e GM |
367 | @end menu |
368 | ||
2b968687 | 369 | @node FAQ 3-1 |
4009494e GM |
370 | @subsubheading Question 3.1 |
371 | ||
91af3942 PE |
372 | I just installed Gnus, started it via |
373 | @samp{M-x gnus} | |
4009494e GM |
374 | but it only says "nntp (news) open error", what to do? |
375 | ||
376 | @subsubheading Answer | |
377 | ||
378 | You've got to tell Gnus where to fetch the news from. Read | |
379 | the documentation for information on how to do this. As a | |
380 | first start, put those lines in ~/.gnus.el: | |
381 | ||
382 | @example | |
383 | (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.yourprovider.net")) | |
384 | (setq user-mail-address "you@@yourprovider.net") | |
385 | (setq user-full-name "Your Name") | |
386 | @end example | |
387 | @noindent | |
388 | ||
2b968687 | 389 | @node FAQ 3-2 |
4009494e GM |
390 | @subsubheading Question 3.2 |
391 | ||
392 | I'm working under Windows and have no idea what ~/.gnus.el means. | |
393 | ||
394 | @subsubheading Answer | |
395 | ||
396 | The ~/ means the home directory where Gnus and Emacs look | |
397 | for the configuration files. However, you don't really | |
398 | need to know what this means, it suffices that Emacs knows | |
91af3942 PE |
399 | what it means :-) You can type |
400 | @samp{C-x C-f ~/.gnus.el RET } | |
4009494e GM |
401 | (yes, with the forward slash, even on Windows), and |
402 | Emacs will open the right file for you. (It will most | |
403 | likely be new, and thus empty.) | |
404 | However, I'd discourage you from doing so, since the | |
405 | directory Emacs chooses will most certainly not be what | |
91af3942 | 406 | you want, so let's do it the correct way. |
4009494e GM |
407 | The first thing you've got to do is to |
408 | create a suitable directory (no blanks in directory name | |
409 | please) e.g. c:\myhome. Then you must set the environment | |
b46a6a83 | 410 | variable HOME to this directory. To do this under Windows 9x |
4009494e GM |
411 | or Me include the line |
412 | ||
413 | @example | |
414 | SET HOME=C:\myhome | |
415 | @end example | |
416 | @noindent | |
417 | ||
418 | in your autoexec.bat and reboot. Under NT, 2000 and XP, hit | |
2b968687 MB |
419 | Winkey+Pause/Break to enter system options (if it doesn't work, go |
420 | to Control Panel -> System -> Advanced). There you'll find the | |
421 | possibility to set environment variables. Create a new one with | |
422 | name HOME and value C:\myhome. Rebooting is not necessary. | |
4009494e GM |
423 | |
424 | Now to create ~/.gnus.el, say | |
425 | @samp{C-x C-f ~/.gnus.el RET C-x C-s}. | |
426 | in Emacs. | |
427 | ||
2b968687 | 428 | @node FAQ 3-3 |
4009494e GM |
429 | @subsubheading Question 3.3 |
430 | ||
431 | My news server requires authentication, how to store | |
432 | user name and password on disk? | |
433 | ||
434 | @subsubheading Answer | |
435 | ||
436 | Create a file ~/.authinfo which includes for each server a line like this | |
437 | ||
438 | @example | |
439 | machine news.yourprovider.net login YourUserName password YourPassword | |
440 | @end example | |
441 | @noindent | |
442 | . | |
443 | Make sure that the file isn't readable to others if you | |
444 | work on a OS which is capable of doing so. (Under Unix | |
91af3942 | 445 | say |
4009494e GM |
446 | @example |
447 | chmod 600 ~/.authinfo | |
448 | @end example | |
449 | @noindent | |
450 | ||
451 | in a shell.) | |
452 | ||
2b968687 | 453 | @node FAQ 3-4 |
4009494e GM |
454 | @subsubheading Question 3.4 |
455 | ||
456 | Gnus seems to start up OK, but I can't find out how to | |
457 | subscribe to a group. | |
458 | ||
459 | @subsubheading Answer | |
460 | ||
461 | If you know the name of the group say @samp{U | |
462 | name.of.group RET} in group buffer (use the | |
463 | tab-completion Luke). Otherwise hit ^ in group buffer, | |
464 | this brings you to the server buffer. Now place point (the | |
465 | cursor) over the server which carries the group you want, | |
466 | hit @samp{RET}, move point to the group | |
467 | you want to subscribe to and say @samp{u} | |
468 | to subscribe to it. | |
469 | ||
2b968687 | 470 | @node FAQ 3-5 |
4009494e GM |
471 | @subsubheading Question 3.5 |
472 | ||
473 | Gnus doesn't show all groups / Gnus says I'm not allowed to | |
474 | post on this server as well as I am, what's that? | |
475 | ||
476 | @subsubheading Answer | |
477 | ||
478 | Some providers allow restricted anonymous access and full | |
479 | access only after authorization. To make Gnus send authinfo | |
91af3942 | 480 | to those servers append |
4009494e GM |
481 | |
482 | @example | |
483 | force yes | |
484 | @end example | |
485 | @noindent | |
91af3942 | 486 | |
4009494e GM |
487 | to the line for those servers in ~/.authinfo. |
488 | ||
2b968687 | 489 | @node FAQ 3-6 |
4009494e GM |
490 | @subsubheading Question 3.6 |
491 | ||
492 | I want Gnus to fetch news from several servers, is this possible? | |
493 | ||
494 | @subsubheading Answer | |
495 | ||
496 | Of course. You can specify more sources for articles in the | |
497 | variable gnus-secondary-select-methods. Add something like | |
498 | this in ~/.gnus.el: | |
499 | ||
500 | @example | |
501 | (add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods | |
502 | '(nntp "news.yourSecondProvider.net")) | |
503 | (add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods | |
504 | '(nntp "news.yourThirdProvider.net")) | |
505 | @end example | |
506 | @noindent | |
507 | ||
2b968687 | 508 | @node FAQ 3-7 |
4009494e GM |
509 | @subsubheading Question 3.7 |
510 | ||
511 | And how about local spool files? | |
512 | ||
513 | @subsubheading Answer | |
514 | ||
515 | No problem, this is just one more select method called | |
516 | nnspool, so you want this: | |
517 | ||
518 | @example | |
519 | (add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnspool "")) | |
520 | @end example | |
521 | @noindent | |
522 | ||
523 | Or this if you don't want an NNTP Server as primary news source: | |
524 | ||
525 | @example | |
526 | (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool "")) | |
527 | @end example | |
528 | @noindent | |
529 | ||
530 | Gnus will look for the spool file in /usr/spool/news, if you | |
531 | want something different, change the line above to something like this: | |
532 | ||
533 | @example | |
534 | (add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods | |
535 | '(nnspool "" | |
9360256a | 536 | (nnspool-directory "/usr/local/myspoolddir"))) |
4009494e GM |
537 | @end example |
538 | @noindent | |
539 | ||
540 | This sets the spool directory for this server only. | |
541 | You might have to specify more stuff like the program used | |
542 | to post articles, see the Gnus manual on how to do this. | |
543 | ||
2b968687 | 544 | @node FAQ 3-8 |
4009494e GM |
545 | @subsubheading Question 3.8 |
546 | ||
547 | OK, reading news works now, but I want to be able to read my mail | |
548 | with Gnus, too. How to do it? | |
549 | ||
550 | @subsubheading Answer | |
551 | ||
552 | That's a bit harder since there are many possible sources | |
553 | for mail, many possible ways for storing mail and many | |
554 | different ways for sending mail. The most common cases are | |
555 | these: 1: You want to read your mail from a pop3 server and | |
556 | send them directly to a SMTP Server 2: Some program like | |
557 | fetchmail retrieves your mail and stores it on disk from | |
558 | where Gnus shall read it. Outgoing mail is sent by | |
559 | Sendmail, Postfix or some other MTA. Sometimes, you even | |
560 | need a combination of the above cases. | |
561 | ||
562 | However, the first thing to do is to tell Gnus in which way | |
563 | it should store the mail, in Gnus terminology which back end | |
564 | to use. Gnus supports many different back ends, the most | |
565 | commonly used one is nnml. It stores every mail in one file | |
a98edce9 | 566 | and is therefore quite fast. However you might prefer a one |
4009494e GM |
567 | file per group approach if your file system has problems with |
568 | many small files, the nnfolder back end is then probably the | |
569 | choice for you. To use nnml add the following to ~/.gnus.el: | |
570 | ||
571 | @example | |
572 | (add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnml "")) | |
573 | @end example | |
574 | @noindent | |
575 | ||
576 | As you might have guessed, if you want nnfolder, it's | |
577 | ||
578 | @example | |
579 | (add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnfolder "")) | |
580 | @end example | |
581 | @noindent | |
582 | ||
a98edce9 | 583 | Now we need to tell Gnus, where to get its mail from. If |
4009494e GM |
584 | it's a POP3 server, then you need something like this: |
585 | ||
586 | @example | |
587 | (eval-after-load "mail-source" | |
588 | '(add-to-list 'mail-sources '(pop :server "pop.YourProvider.net" | |
589 | :user "yourUserName" | |
590 | :password "yourPassword"))) | |
591 | @end example | |
592 | @noindent | |
593 | ||
594 | Make sure ~/.gnus.el isn't readable to others if you store | |
595 | your password there. If you want to read your mail from a | |
596 | traditional spool file on your local machine, it's | |
597 | ||
598 | @example | |
599 | (eval-after-load "mail-source" | |
600 | '(add-to-list 'mail-sources '(file :path "/path/to/spool/file")) | |
601 | @end example | |
602 | @noindent | |
603 | ||
604 | If it's a Maildir, with one file per message as used by | |
605 | postfix, Qmail and (optionally) fetchmail it's | |
606 | ||
607 | @example | |
608 | (eval-after-load "mail-source" | |
609 | '(add-to-list 'mail-sources '(maildir :path "/path/to/Maildir/" | |
610 | :subdirs ("cur" "new"))) | |
611 | @end example | |
612 | @noindent | |
613 | ||
614 | And finally if you want to read your mail from several files | |
615 | in one directory, for example because procmail already split your | |
616 | mail, it's | |
617 | ||
618 | @example | |
619 | (eval-after-load "mail-source" | |
620 | '(add-to-list 'mail-sources | |
9360256a GM |
621 | '(directory :path "/path/to/procmail-dir/" |
622 | :suffix ".prcml"))) | |
4009494e GM |
623 | @end example |
624 | @noindent | |
625 | ||
626 | Where :suffix ".prcml" tells Gnus only to use files with the | |
627 | suffix .prcml. | |
628 | ||
629 | OK, now you only need to tell Gnus how to send mail. If you | |
630 | want to send mail via sendmail (or whichever MTA is playing | |
631 | the role of sendmail on your system), you don't need to do | |
632 | anything. However, if you want to send your mail to an | |
633 | SMTP Server you need the following in your ~/.gnus.el | |
634 | ||
635 | @example | |
636 | (setq send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it) | |
637 | (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it) | |
638 | (setq smtpmail-default-smtp-server "smtp.yourProvider.net") | |
639 | @end example | |
640 | @noindent | |
641 | ||
2b968687 | 642 | @node FAQ 3-9 |
4009494e GM |
643 | @subsubheading Question 3.9 |
644 | ||
645 | And what about IMAP? | |
646 | ||
647 | @subsubheading Answer | |
648 | ||
649 | There are two ways of using IMAP with Gnus. The first one is | |
650 | to use IMAP like POP3, that means Gnus fetches the mail from | |
651 | the IMAP server and stores it on disk. If you want to do | |
652 | this (you don't really want to do this) add the following to | |
653 | ~/.gnus.el | |
654 | ||
655 | @example | |
656 | (add-to-list 'mail-sources '(imap :server "mail.mycorp.com" | |
657 | :user "username" | |
658 | :pass "password" | |
659 | :stream network | |
660 | :authentication login | |
661 | :mailbox "INBOX" | |
662 | :fetchflag "\\Seen")) | |
663 | @end example | |
664 | @noindent | |
665 | ||
666 | You might have to tweak the values for stream and/or | |
667 | authentication, see the Gnus manual node "Mail Source | |
668 | Specifiers" for possible values. | |
669 | ||
670 | If you want to use IMAP the way it's intended, you've got to | |
671 | follow a different approach. You've got to add the nnimap | |
672 | back end to your select method and give the information | |
673 | about the server there. | |
674 | ||
675 | @example | |
676 | (add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods | |
9360256a GM |
677 | '(nnimap "Give the baby a name" |
678 | (nnimap-address "imap.yourProvider.net") | |
679 | (nnimap-port 143) | |
680 | (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*"))) | |
4009494e GM |
681 | @end example |
682 | @noindent | |
683 | ||
684 | Again, you might have to specify how to authenticate to the | |
685 | server if Gnus can't guess the correct way, see the Manual | |
686 | Node "IMAP" for detailed information. | |
687 | ||
2b968687 | 688 | @node FAQ 3-10 |
4009494e GM |
689 | @subsubheading Question 3.10 |
690 | ||
691 | At the office we use one of those MS Exchange servers, can I use | |
692 | Gnus to read my mail from it? | |
693 | ||
694 | @subsubheading Answer | |
695 | ||
696 | Offer your administrator a pair of new running shoes for | |
697 | activating IMAP on the server and follow the instructions | |
698 | above. | |
699 | ||
2b968687 | 700 | @node FAQ 3-11 |
4009494e GM |
701 | @subsubheading Question 3.11 |
702 | ||
703 | Can I tell Gnus not to delete the mails on the server it | |
704 | retrieves via POP3? | |
705 | ||
706 | @subsubheading Answer | |
707 | ||
708 | First of all, that's not the way POP3 is intended to work, | |
709 | if you have the possibility, you should use the IMAP | |
710 | Protocol if you want your messages to stay on the | |
711 | server. Nevertheless there might be situations where you | |
712 | need the feature, but sadly Gnus itself has no predefined | |
713 | functionality to do so. | |
714 | ||
715 | However this is Gnus county so there are possibilities to | |
716 | achieve what you want. The easiest way is to get an external | |
717 | program which retrieves copies of the mail and stores them | |
718 | on disk, so Gnus can read it from there. On Unix systems you | |
719 | could use e.g. fetchmail for this, on MS Windows you can use | |
720 | Hamster, an excellent local news and mail server. | |
721 | ||
722 | The other solution would be, to replace the method Gnus | |
723 | uses to get mail from POP3 servers by one which is capable | |
724 | of leaving the mail on the server. If you use XEmacs, get | |
725 | the package mail-lib, it includes an enhanced pop3.el, | |
726 | look in the file, there's documentation on how to tell | |
727 | Gnus to use it and not to delete the retrieved mail. For | |
728 | GNU Emacs look for the file epop3.el which can do the same | |
729 | (If you know the home of this file, please send me an | |
730 | e-mail). You can also tell Gnus to use an external program | |
731 | (e.g. fetchmail) to fetch your mail, see the info node | |
732 | "Mail Source Specifiers" in the Gnus manual on how to do | |
733 | it. | |
734 | ||
735 | @node FAQ 4 - Reading messages | |
736 | @subsection Reading messages | |
737 | ||
738 | @menu | |
2b968687 MB |
739 | * FAQ 4-1:: When I enter a group, all read messages are gone. How to |
740 | view them again? | |
741 | * FAQ 4-2:: How to tell Gnus to show an important message every time | |
742 | I enter a group, even when it's read? | |
743 | * FAQ 4-3:: How to view the headers of a message? | |
744 | * FAQ 4-4:: How to view the raw unformatted message? | |
745 | * FAQ 4-5:: How can I change the headers Gnus displays by default at | |
746 | the top of the article buffer? | |
747 | * FAQ 4-6:: I'd like Gnus NOT to render HTML-mails but show me the | |
748 | text part if it's available. How to do it? | |
749 | * FAQ 4-7:: Can I use some other browser than w3 to render my | |
750 | HTML-mails? | |
751 | * FAQ 4-8:: Is there anything I can do to make poorly formatted | |
752 | mails more readable? | |
753 | * FAQ 4-9:: Is there a way to automatically ignore posts by specific | |
754 | authors or with specific words in the subject? And can I | |
755 | highlight more interesting ones in some way? | |
756 | * FAQ 4-10:: How can I disable threading in some (e.g. mail-) groups, | |
757 | or set other variables specific for some groups? | |
758 | * FAQ 4-11:: Can I highlight messages written by me and follow-ups to | |
759 | those? | |
760 | * FAQ 4-12:: The number of total messages in a group which Gnus | |
761 | displays in group buffer is by far to high, especially in mail | |
762 | groups. Is this a bug? | |
763 | * FAQ 4-13:: I don't like the layout of summary and article buffer, | |
764 | how to change it? Perhaps even a three pane display? | |
765 | * FAQ 4-14:: I don't like the way the Summary buffer looks, how to | |
766 | tweak it? | |
767 | * FAQ 4-15:: How to split incoming mails in several groups? | |
4009494e GM |
768 | @end menu |
769 | ||
2b968687 | 770 | @node FAQ 4-1 |
4009494e GM |
771 | @subsubheading Question 4.1 |
772 | ||
773 | When I enter a group, all read messages are gone. How to view them again? | |
774 | ||
775 | @subsubheading Answer | |
776 | ||
91af3942 | 777 | If you enter the group by saying |
4009494e GM |
778 | @samp{RET} |
779 | in group buffer with point over the group, only unread and ticked messages are loaded. Say | |
780 | @samp{C-u RET} | |
781 | instead to load all available messages. If you want only the e.g. 300 newest say | |
782 | @samp{C-u 300 RET} | |
783 | ||
784 | Loading only unread messages can be annoying if you have threaded view enabled, say | |
785 | ||
786 | @example | |
787 | (setq gnus-fetch-old-headers 'some) | |
788 | @end example | |
789 | @noindent | |
91af3942 | 790 | |
4009494e | 791 | in ~/.gnus.el to load enough old articles to prevent teared threads, replace 'some with t to load |
91af3942 | 792 | all articles (Warning: Both settings enlarge the amount of data which is |
4009494e GM |
793 | fetched when you enter a group and slow down the process of entering a group). |
794 | ||
91af3942 PE |
795 | If you already use Gnus 5.10, you can say |
796 | @samp{/o N} | |
4009494e GM |
797 | In summary buffer to load the last N messages, this feature is not available in 5.8.8 |
798 | ||
799 | If you don't want all old messages, but the parent of the message you're just reading, | |
800 | you can say @samp{^}, if you want to retrieve the whole thread | |
801 | the message you're just reading belongs to, @samp{A T} is your friend. | |
802 | ||
2b968687 | 803 | @node FAQ 4-2 |
4009494e GM |
804 | @subsubheading Question 4.2 |
805 | ||
806 | How to tell Gnus to show an important message every time I | |
807 | enter a group, even when it's read? | |
808 | ||
809 | @subsubheading Answer | |
810 | ||
811 | You can tick important messages. To do this hit | |
812 | @samp{u} while point is in summary buffer | |
813 | over the message. When you want to remove the mark, hit | |
814 | either @samp{d} (this deletes the tick | |
815 | mark and set's unread mark) or @samp{M c} | |
816 | (which deletes all marks for the message). | |
817 | ||
2b968687 | 818 | @node FAQ 4-3 |
4009494e GM |
819 | @subsubheading Question 4.3 |
820 | ||
821 | How to view the headers of a message? | |
822 | ||
823 | @subsubheading Answer | |
824 | ||
91af3942 | 825 | Say @samp{t} |
4009494e | 826 | to show all headers, one more |
91af3942 | 827 | @samp{t} |
4009494e GM |
828 | hides them again. |
829 | ||
2b968687 | 830 | @node FAQ 4-4 |
4009494e GM |
831 | @subsubheading Question 4.4 |
832 | ||
833 | How to view the raw unformatted message? | |
834 | ||
835 | @subsubheading Answer | |
836 | ||
91af3942 PE |
837 | Say |
838 | @samp{C-u g} | |
4009494e | 839 | to show the raw message |
91af3942 | 840 | @samp{g} |
4009494e GM |
841 | returns to normal view. |
842 | ||
2b968687 | 843 | @node FAQ 4-5 |
4009494e GM |
844 | @subsubheading Question 4.5 |
845 | ||
846 | How can I change the headers Gnus displays by default at | |
847 | the top of the article buffer? | |
848 | ||
849 | @subsubheading Answer | |
850 | ||
851 | The variable gnus-visible-headers controls which headers | |
852 | are shown, its value is a regular expression, header lines | |
853 | which match it are shown. So if you want author, subject, | |
854 | date, and if the header exists, Followup-To and MUA / NUA | |
855 | say this in ~/.gnus.el: | |
856 | ||
857 | @example | |
858 | (setq gnus-visible-headers | |
859 | '("^From" "^Subject" "^Date" "^Newsgroups" "^Followup-To" | |
9360256a | 860 | "^User-Agent" "^X-Newsreader" "^X-Mailer")) |
4009494e GM |
861 | @end example |
862 | @noindent | |
863 | ||
2b968687 | 864 | @node FAQ 4-6 |
4009494e GM |
865 | @subsubheading Question 4.6 |
866 | ||
867 | I'd like Gnus NOT to render HTML-mails but show me the | |
868 | text part if it's available. How to do it? | |
869 | ||
870 | @subsubheading Answer | |
871 | ||
872 | Say | |
873 | ||
874 | @example | |
875 | (eval-after-load "mm-decode" | |
91af3942 | 876 | '(progn |
4009494e GM |
877 | (add-to-list 'mm-discouraged-alternatives "text/html") |
878 | (add-to-list 'mm-discouraged-alternatives "text/richtext"))) | |
879 | @end example | |
880 | @noindent | |
881 | ||
882 | in ~/.gnus.el. If you don't want HTML rendered, even if there's no text alternative add | |
883 | ||
884 | @example | |
885 | (setq mm-automatic-display (remove "text/html" mm-automatic-display)) | |
886 | @end example | |
887 | @noindent | |
888 | ||
889 | too. | |
890 | ||
2b968687 | 891 | @node FAQ 4-7 |
4009494e GM |
892 | @subsubheading Question 4.7 |
893 | ||
894 | Can I use some other browser than w3 to render my HTML-mails? | |
895 | ||
896 | @subsubheading Answer | |
897 | ||
898 | Only if you use Gnus 5.10 or younger. In this case you've got the | |
899 | choice between w3, w3m, links, lynx and html2text, which | |
900 | one is used can be specified in the variable | |
901 | mm-text-html-renderer, so if you want links to render your | |
902 | mail say | |
903 | ||
904 | @example | |
905 | (setq mm-text-html-renderer 'links) | |
906 | @end example | |
907 | @noindent | |
908 | ||
2b968687 | 909 | @node FAQ 4-8 |
4009494e GM |
910 | @subsubheading Question 4.8 |
911 | ||
912 | Is there anything I can do to make poorly formatted mails | |
913 | more readable? | |
914 | ||
915 | @subsubheading Answer | |
916 | ||
917 | Gnus offers you several functions to "wash" incoming mail, you can | |
918 | find them if you browse through the menu, item | |
919 | Article->Washing. The most interesting ones are probably "Wrap | |
920 | long lines" (@samp{W w}), "Decode ROT13" | |
921 | (@samp{W r}) and "Outlook Deuglify" which repairs | |
922 | the dumb quoting used by many users of Microsoft products | |
923 | (@samp{W Y f} gives you full deuglify. | |
924 | See @samp{W Y C-h} or have a look at the menus for | |
925 | other deuglifications). Outlook deuglify is only available since | |
926 | Gnus 5.10. | |
927 | ||
2b968687 | 928 | @node FAQ 4-9 |
4009494e GM |
929 | @subsubheading Question 4.9 |
930 | ||
931 | Is there a way to automatically ignore posts by specific | |
932 | authors or with specific words in the subject? And can I | |
933 | highlight more interesting ones in some way? | |
934 | ||
935 | @subsubheading Answer | |
936 | ||
937 | You want Scoring. Scoring means, that you define rules | |
938 | which assign each message an integer value. Depending on | |
939 | the value the message is highlighted in summary buffer (if | |
940 | it's high, say +2000) or automatically marked read (if the | |
941 | value is low, say -800) or some other action happens. | |
942 | ||
943 | There are basically three ways of setting up rules which assign | |
944 | the scoring-value to messages. The first and easiest way is to set | |
945 | up rules based on the article you are just reading. Say you're | |
946 | reading a message by a guy who always writes nonsense and you want | |
947 | to ignore his messages in the future. Hit | |
948 | @samp{L}, to set up a rule which lowers the score. | |
949 | Now Gnus asks you which the criteria for lowering the Score shall | |
950 | be. Hit @samp{?} twice to see all possibilities, | |
951 | we want @samp{a} which means the author (the from | |
952 | header). Now Gnus wants to know which kind of matching we want. | |
953 | Hit either @samp{e} for an exact match or | |
954 | @samp{s} for substring-match and delete afterwards | |
955 | everything but the name to score down all authors with the given | |
956 | name no matter which email address is used. Now you need to tell | |
957 | Gnus when to apply the rule and how long it should last, hit e.g. | |
958 | @samp{p} to apply the rule now and let it last | |
959 | forever. If you want to raise the score instead of lowering it say | |
960 | @samp{I} instead of @samp{L}. | |
961 | ||
962 | You can also set up rules by hand. To do this say @samp{V | |
963 | f} in summary buffer. Then you are asked for the name | |
964 | of the score file, it's name.of.group.SCORE for rules valid in | |
965 | only one group or all.Score for rules valid in all groups. See the | |
966 | Gnus manual for the exact syntax, basically it's one big list | |
967 | whose elements are lists again. the first element of those lists | |
968 | is the header to score on, then one more list with what to match, | |
969 | which score to assign, when to expire the rule and how to do the | |
970 | matching. If you find me very interesting, you could e.g. add the | |
971 | following to your all.Score: | |
972 | ||
973 | @example | |
974 | (("references" ("hschmi22.userfqdn.rz-online.de" 500 nil s)) | |
975 | ("message-id" ("hschmi22.userfqdn.rz-online.de" 999 nil s))) | |
976 | @end example | |
977 | @noindent | |
978 | ||
979 | This would add 999 to the score of messages written by me | |
980 | and 500 to the score of messages which are a (possibly | |
981 | indirect) answer to a message written by me. Of course | |
982 | nobody with a sane mind would do this :-) | |
983 | ||
984 | The third alternative is adaptive scoring. This means Gnus | |
985 | watches you and tries to find out what you find | |
986 | interesting and what annoying and sets up rules | |
987 | which reflect this. Adaptive scoring can be a huge help | |
988 | when reading high traffic groups. If you want to activate | |
989 | adaptive scoring say | |
990 | ||
991 | @example | |
992 | (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring t) | |
993 | @end example | |
994 | @noindent | |
995 | ||
996 | in ~/.gnus.el. | |
997 | ||
2b968687 | 998 | @node FAQ 4-10 |
4009494e GM |
999 | @subsubheading Question 4.10 |
1000 | ||
1001 | How can I disable threading in some (e.g. mail-) groups, or | |
1002 | set other variables specific for some groups? | |
1003 | ||
1004 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1005 | ||
1006 | While in group buffer move point over the group and hit | |
1007 | @samp{G c}, this opens a buffer where you | |
1008 | can set options for the group. At the bottom of the buffer | |
1009 | you'll find an item that allows you to set variables | |
1010 | locally for the group. To disable threading enter | |
1011 | gnus-show-threads as name of variable and nil as | |
1012 | value. Hit button done at the top of the buffer when | |
1013 | you're ready. | |
1014 | ||
2b968687 | 1015 | @node FAQ 4-11 |
4009494e GM |
1016 | @subsubheading Question 4.11 |
1017 | ||
1018 | Can I highlight messages written by me and follow-ups to | |
1019 | those? | |
1020 | ||
1021 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1022 | ||
1023 | Stop those "Can I ..." questions, the answer is always yes | |
1024 | in Gnus Country :-). It's a three step process: First we | |
1025 | make faces (specifications of how summary-line shall look | |
1026 | like) for those postings, then we'll give them some | |
1027 | special score and finally we'll tell Gnus to use the new | |
66627fa9 | 1028 | faces. |
4009494e | 1029 | |
2b968687 | 1030 | @node FAQ 4-12 |
4009494e GM |
1031 | @subsubheading Question 4.12 |
1032 | ||
1033 | The number of total messages in a group which Gnus | |
1034 | displays in group buffer is by far to high, especially in | |
1035 | mail groups. Is this a bug? | |
1036 | ||
1037 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1038 | ||
1039 | No, that's a matter of design of Gnus, fixing this would | |
1040 | mean reimplementation of major parts of Gnus' | |
1041 | back ends. Gnus thinks "highest-article-number - | |
1042 | lowest-article-number = total-number-of-articles". This | |
1043 | works OK for Usenet groups, but if you delete and move | |
1044 | many messages in mail groups, this fails. To cure the | |
91af3942 | 1045 | symptom, enter the group via @samp{C-u RET} |
4009494e GM |
1046 | (this makes Gnus get all messages), then |
1047 | hit @samp{M P b} to mark all messages and | |
1048 | then say @samp{B m name.of.group} to move | |
1049 | all messages to the group they have been in before, they | |
1050 | get new message numbers in this process and the count is | |
1051 | right again (until you delete and move your mail to other | |
1052 | groups again). | |
1053 | ||
2b968687 | 1054 | @node FAQ 4-13 |
4009494e GM |
1055 | @subsubheading Question 4.13 |
1056 | ||
1057 | I don't like the layout of summary and article buffer, how | |
1058 | to change it? Perhaps even a three pane display? | |
1059 | ||
1060 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1061 | ||
1062 | You can control the windows configuration by calling the | |
1063 | function gnus-add-configuration. The syntax is a bit | |
1064 | complicated but explained very well in the manual node | |
1065 | "Window Layout". Some popular examples: | |
1066 | ||
1067 | Instead 25% summary 75% article buffer 35% summary and 65% | |
1068 | article (the 1.0 for article means "take the remaining | |
1069 | space"): | |
1070 | ||
1071 | @example | |
1072 | (gnus-add-configuration | |
1073 | '(article (vertical 1.0 (summary .35 point) (article 1.0)))) | |
1074 | @end example | |
1075 | @noindent | |
1076 | ||
1077 | A three pane layout, Group buffer on the left, summary | |
1078 | buffer top-right, article buffer bottom-right: | |
1079 | ||
1080 | @example | |
1081 | (gnus-add-configuration | |
1082 | '(article | |
1083 | (horizontal 1.0 | |
9360256a GM |
1084 | (vertical 25 |
1085 | (group 1.0)) | |
1086 | (vertical 1.0 | |
1087 | (summary 0.25 point) | |
1088 | (article 1.0))))) | |
4009494e GM |
1089 | (gnus-add-configuration |
1090 | '(summary | |
1091 | (horizontal 1.0 | |
9360256a GM |
1092 | (vertical 25 |
1093 | (group 1.0)) | |
1094 | (vertical 1.0 | |
1095 | (summary 1.0 point))))) | |
4009494e GM |
1096 | @end example |
1097 | @noindent | |
1098 | ||
2b968687 | 1099 | @node FAQ 4-14 |
4009494e GM |
1100 | @subsubheading Question 4.14 |
1101 | ||
1102 | I don't like the way the Summary buffer looks, how to tweak it? | |
1103 | ||
1104 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1105 | ||
1106 | You've got to play around with the variable | |
a98edce9 | 1107 | gnus-summary-line-format. Its value is a string of |
4009494e GM |
1108 | symbols which stand for things like author, date, subject |
1109 | etc. A list of the available specifiers can be found in the | |
1110 | manual node "Summary Buffer Lines" and the often forgotten | |
a98edce9 | 1111 | node "Formatting Variables" and its sub-nodes. There |
4009494e GM |
1112 | you'll find useful things like positioning the cursor and |
1113 | tabulators which allow you a summary in table form, but | |
1114 | sadly hard tabulators are broken in 5.8.8. | |
1115 | ||
1116 | Since 5.10, Gnus offers you some very nice new specifiers, | |
1117 | e.g. %B which draws a thread-tree and %&user-date which | |
1118 | gives you a date where the details are dependent of the | |
1119 | articles age. Here's an example which uses both: | |
1120 | ||
1121 | @example | |
1122 | (setq gnus-summary-line-format ":%U%R %B %s %-60=|%4L |%-20,20f |%&user-date; \n") | |
1123 | @end example | |
1124 | @noindent | |
1125 | ||
1126 | resulting in: | |
1127 | ||
1128 | @example | |
1129 | :O Re: [Richard Stallman] rfc2047.el | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:06 | |
1130 | :O Re: Revival of the ding-patches list | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:12 | |
1131 | :R > Re: Find correct list of articles for a gro| 25 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:16 | |
1132 | :O \-> ... | 21 |Kai Grossjohann | 0:01 | |
1133 | :R > Re: Cry for help: deuglify.el - moving stuf| 28 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:34 | |
1134 | :O \-> ... | 115 |Raymond Scholz | 1:24 | |
1135 | :O \-> ... | 19 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |15:33 | |
1136 | :O Slow mailing list | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:49 | |
1137 | :O Re: `@@' mark not documented | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:50 | |
1138 | :R > Re: Gnus still doesn't count messages prope| 23 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:57 | |
1139 | :O \-> ... | 18 |Kai Grossjohann | 0:35 | |
1140 | :O \-> ... | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt | 0:56 | |
1141 | @end example | |
1142 | @noindent | |
1143 | ||
2b968687 | 1144 | @node FAQ 4-15 |
4009494e GM |
1145 | @subsubheading Question 4.15 |
1146 | ||
1147 | How to split incoming mails in several groups? | |
1148 | ||
1149 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1150 | ||
1151 | Gnus offers two possibilities for splitting mail, the easy | |
1152 | nnmail-split-methods and the more powerful Fancy Mail | |
1153 | Splitting. I'll only talk about the first one, refer to | |
1154 | the manual, node "Fancy Mail Splitting" for the latter. | |
1155 | ||
1156 | The value of nnmail-split-methods is a list, each element | |
1157 | is a list which stands for a splitting rule. Each rule has | |
1158 | the form "group where matching articles should go to", | |
1159 | "regular expression which has to be matched", the first | |
1160 | rule which matches wins. The last rule must always be a | |
1161 | general rule (regular expression .*) which denotes where | |
1162 | articles should go which don't match any other rule. If | |
1163 | the folder doesn't exist yet, it will be created as soon | |
1164 | as an article lands there. By default the mail will be | |
91af3942 | 1165 | send to all groups whose rules match. If you |
4009494e GM |
1166 | don't want that (you probably don't want), say |
1167 | ||
1168 | @example | |
1169 | (setq nnmail-crosspost nil) | |
1170 | @end example | |
1171 | @noindent | |
1172 | ||
1173 | in ~/.gnus.el. | |
1174 | ||
1175 | An example might be better than thousand words, so here's | |
1176 | my nnmail-split-methods. Note that I send duplicates in a | |
1177 | special group and that the default group is spam, since I | |
1178 | filter all mails out which are from some list I'm | |
1179 | subscribed to or which are addressed directly to me | |
1180 | before. Those rules kill about 80% of the Spam which | |
1181 | reaches me (Email addresses are changed to prevent spammers | |
1182 | from using them): | |
1183 | ||
1184 | @example | |
1185 | (setq nnmail-split-methods | |
1186 | '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate") | |
1187 | ("XEmacs-NT" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@xemacs.invalid.*") | |
1188 | ("Gnus-Tut" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@socha.invalid.*") | |
1189 | ("tcsh" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@mx.gw.invalid.*") | |
1190 | ("BAfH" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@.*uni-muenchen.invalid.*") | |
1191 | ("Hamster-src" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*hamster-sourcen@@yahoogroups.\\(de\\|com\\).*") | |
1192 | ("Tagesschau" "^From: tagesschau <localpart@@www.tagesschau.invalid>$") | |
1193 | ("Replies" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*localpart@@Frank-Schmitt.invalid.*") | |
1194 | ("EK" "^From:.*\\(localpart@@privateprovider.invalid\\|localpart@@workplace.invalid\\).*") | |
1195 | ("Spam" "^Content-Type:.*\\(ks_c_5601-1987\\|EUC-KR\\|big5\\|iso-2022-jp\\).*") | |
1196 | ("Spam" "^Subject:.*\\(This really work\\|XINGA\\|ADV:\\|XXX\\|adult\\|sex\\).*") | |
1197 | ("Spam" "^Subject:.*\\(\=\?ks_c_5601-1987\?\\|\=\?euc-kr\?\\|\=\?big5\?\\).*") | |
1198 | ("Spam" "^X-Mailer:\\(.*BulkMailer.*\\|.*MIME::Lite.*\\|\\)") | |
1199 | ("Spam" "^X-Mailer:\\(.*CyberCreek Avalanche\\|.*http\:\/\/GetResponse\.com\\)") | |
1200 | ("Spam" "^From:.*\\(verizon\.net\\|prontomail\.com\\|money\\|ConsumerDirect\\).*") | |
1201 | ("Spam" "^Delivered-To: GMX delivery to spamtrap@@gmx.invalid$") | |
1202 | ("Spam" "^Received: from link2buy.com") | |
1203 | ("Spam" "^CC: .*azzrael@@t-online.invalid") | |
1204 | ("Spam" "^X-Mailer-Version: 1.50 BETA") | |
1205 | ("Uni" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*localpart@@uni-koblenz.invalid.*") | |
91af3942 | 1206 | ("Inbox" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*\\(my\ name\\|address@@one.invalid\\|address@@two.invalid\\)") |
4009494e GM |
1207 | ("Spam" ""))) |
1208 | @end example | |
1209 | @noindent | |
1210 | ||
1211 | @node FAQ 5 - Composing messages | |
1212 | @subsection Composing messages | |
1213 | ||
1214 | @menu | |
2b968687 MB |
1215 | * FAQ 5-1:: What are the basic commands I need to know for sending |
1216 | mail and postings? | |
1217 | * FAQ 5-2:: How to enable automatic word-wrap when composing | |
1218 | messages? | |
1219 | * FAQ 5-3:: How to set stuff like From, Organization, Reply-To, | |
1220 | signature...? | |
1221 | * FAQ 5-4:: Can I set things like From, Signature etc group based on | |
1222 | the group I post too? | |
1223 | * FAQ 5-5:: Is there a spell-checker? Perhaps even on-the-fly | |
1224 | spell-checking? | |
1225 | * FAQ 5-6:: Can I set the dictionary based on the group I'm posting | |
1226 | to? | |
1227 | * FAQ 5-7:: Is there some kind of address-book, so I needn't | |
1228 | remember all those email addresses? | |
1229 | * FAQ 5-8:: Sometimes I see little images at the top of article | |
1230 | buffer. What's that and how can I send one with my postings, | |
1231 | too? | |
1232 | * FAQ 5-9:: Sometimes I accidentally hit r instead of f in | |
1233 | newsgroups. Can Gnus warn me, when I'm replying by mail in | |
1234 | newsgroups? | |
1235 | * FAQ 5-10:: How to tell Gnus not to generate a sender header? | |
1236 | * FAQ 5-11:: I want Gnus to locally store copies of my send mail and | |
1237 | news, how to do it? | |
1238 | * FAQ 5-12:: I want Gnus to kill the buffer after successful sending | |
1239 | instead of keeping it alive as "Sent mail to...", how to do it? | |
1240 | * FAQ 5-13:: People tell me my Message-IDs are not correct, why | |
1241 | aren't they and how to fix it? | |
4009494e GM |
1242 | @end menu |
1243 | ||
2b968687 | 1244 | @node FAQ 5-1 |
4009494e GM |
1245 | @subsubheading Question 5.1 |
1246 | ||
1247 | What are the basic commands I need to know for sending mail and postings? | |
1248 | ||
1249 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1250 | ||
1251 | To start composing a new mail hit @samp{m} | |
1252 | either in Group or Summary buffer, for a posting, it's | |
1253 | either @samp{a} in Group buffer and | |
1254 | filling the Newsgroups header manually | |
1255 | or @samp{a} in the Summary buffer of the | |
1256 | group where the posting shall be send to. Replying by mail | |
1257 | is | |
1258 | @samp{r} if you don't want to cite the | |
1259 | author, or import the cited text manually and | |
1260 | @samp{R} to cite the text of the original | |
1261 | message. For a follow up to a newsgroup, it's | |
1262 | @samp{f} and @samp{F} | |
1263 | (analogously to @samp{r} and | |
1264 | @samp{R}). | |
1265 | ||
1266 | Enter new headers above the line saying "--text follows | |
1267 | this line--", enter the text below the line. When ready | |
1268 | hit @samp{C-c C-c}, to send the message, | |
1269 | if you want to finish it later hit @samp{C-c | |
1270 | C-d} to save it in the drafts group, where you | |
1271 | can start editing it again by saying @samp{D | |
1272 | e}. | |
1273 | ||
2b968687 | 1274 | @node FAQ 5-2 |
4009494e GM |
1275 | @subsubheading Question 5.2 |
1276 | ||
1277 | How to enable automatic word-wrap when composing messages? | |
1278 | ||
1279 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1280 | ||
01c52d31 MB |
1281 | Starting from No Gnus, automatic word-wrap is already enabled by |
1282 | default, see the variable message-fill-column. | |
1283 | ||
1284 | For other versions of Gnus, say | |
4009494e GM |
1285 | |
1286 | @example | |
01c52d31 MB |
1287 | (unless (boundp 'message-fill-column) |
1288 | (add-hook 'message-mode-hook | |
1289 | (lambda () | |
1290 | (setq fill-column 72) | |
1291 | (turn-on-auto-fill)))) | |
4009494e GM |
1292 | @end example |
1293 | @noindent | |
1294 | ||
01c52d31 MB |
1295 | in ~/.gnus.el. |
1296 | ||
2b968687 MB |
1297 | You can reformat a paragraph by hitting @samp{M-q} |
1298 | (as usual). | |
4009494e | 1299 | |
2b968687 | 1300 | @node FAQ 5-3 |
4009494e GM |
1301 | @subsubheading Question 5.3 |
1302 | ||
1303 | How to set stuff like From, Organization, Reply-To, signature...? | |
1304 | ||
1305 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1306 | ||
1307 | There are other ways, but you should use posting styles | |
1308 | for this. (See below why). | |
1309 | This example should make the syntax clear: | |
1310 | ||
1311 | @example | |
1312 | (setq gnus-posting-styles | |
1313 | '((".*" | |
1314 | (name "Frank Schmitt") | |
1315 | (address "me@@there.invalid") | |
1316 | (organization "Hamme net, kren mer och nimmi") | |
1317 | (signature-file "~/.signature") | |
1318 | ("X-SampleHeader" "foobar") | |
1319 | (eval (setq some-variable "Foo bar"))))) | |
1320 | @end example | |
1321 | @noindent | |
1322 | ||
1323 | The ".*" means that this settings are the default ones | |
1324 | (see below), valid values for the first element of the | |
1325 | following lists are signature, signature-file, | |
1326 | organization, address, name or body. The attribute name | |
1327 | can also be a string. In that case, this will be used as | |
1328 | a header name, and the value will be inserted in the | |
1329 | headers of the article; if the value is `nil', the header | |
1330 | name will be removed. You can also say (eval (foo bar)), | |
1331 | then the function foo will be evaluated with argument bar | |
1332 | and the result will be thrown away. | |
1333 | ||
2b968687 | 1334 | @node FAQ 5-4 |
4009494e GM |
1335 | @subsubheading Question 5.4 |
1336 | ||
1337 | Can I set things like From, Signature etc group based on the group I post too? | |
1338 | ||
1339 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1340 | ||
1341 | That's the strength of posting styles. Before, we used ".*" | |
1342 | to set the default for all groups. You can use a regexp | |
1343 | like "^gmane" and the following settings are only applied | |
1344 | to postings you send to the gmane hierarchy, use | |
1345 | ".*binaries" instead and they will be applied to postings | |
1346 | send to groups containing the string binaries in their | |
1347 | name etc. | |
1348 | ||
1349 | You can instead of specifying a regexp specify a function | |
1350 | which is evaluated, only if it returns true, the | |
1351 | corresponding settings take effect. Two interesting | |
1352 | candidates for this are message-news-p which returns t if | |
1353 | the current Group is a newsgroup and the corresponding | |
1354 | message-mail-p. | |
1355 | ||
1356 | Note that all forms that match are applied, that means in | |
1357 | the example below, when I post to | |
1358 | gmane.mail.spam.spamassassin.general, the settings under | |
1359 | ".*" are applied and the settings under message-news-p and | |
1360 | those under "^gmane" and those under | |
1361 | "^gmane\\.mail\\.spam\\.spamassassin\\.general$". Because | |
1362 | of this put general settings at the top and specific ones | |
1363 | at the bottom. | |
1364 | ||
1365 | @example | |
1366 | (setq gnus-posting-styles | |
1367 | '((".*" ;;default | |
1368 | (name "Frank Schmitt") | |
1369 | (organization "Hamme net, kren mer och nimmi") | |
1370 | (signature-file "~/.signature")) | |
1371 | ((message-news-p) ;;Usenet news? | |
1372 | (address "mySpamTrap@@Frank-Schmitt.invalid") | |
1373 | (reply-to "hereRealRepliesOnlyPlease@@Frank-Schmitt.invalid")) | |
1374 | ((message-mail-p) ;;mail? | |
1375 | (address "usedForMails@@Frank-Schmitt.invalid")) | |
1376 | ("^gmane" ;;this is mail, too in fact | |
1377 | (address "usedForMails@@Frank-Schmitt.invalid") | |
1378 | (reply-to nil)) | |
1379 | ("^gmane\\.mail\\.spam\\.spamassassin\\.general$" | |
1380 | (eval (set (make-local-variable 'message-sendmail-envelope-from) | |
1381 | "Azzrael@@rz-online.de"))))) | |
1382 | @end example | |
1383 | @noindent | |
1384 | ||
2b968687 | 1385 | @node FAQ 5-5 |
4009494e GM |
1386 | @subsubheading Question 5.5 |
1387 | ||
1388 | Is there a spell-checker? Perhaps even on-the-fly spell-checking? | |
1389 | ||
1390 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1391 | ||
1392 | You can use ispell.el to spell-check stuff in Emacs. So the | |
1393 | first thing to do is to make sure that you've got either | |
1394 | @uref{http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/fmg-members/geoff/ispell.html, ispell} | |
1395 | or @uref{http://aspell.sourceforge.net/, aspell} | |
91af3942 | 1396 | installed and in your Path. Then you need |
4009494e | 1397 | @uref{http://www.kdstevens.com/~stevens/ispell-page.html, ispell.el} |
91af3942 | 1398 | and for on-the-fly spell-checking |
66627fa9 | 1399 | @uref{http://www-sop.inria.fr/members/Manuel.Serrano/flyspell/flyspell.html, flyspell.el}. |
91af3942 PE |
1400 | Ispell.el is shipped with Emacs and available through the XEmacs package system, |
1401 | flyspell.el is shipped with Emacs and part of XEmacs text-modes package which is | |
1402 | available through the package system, so there should be no need to install them | |
4009494e GM |
1403 | manually. |
1404 | ||
1405 | Ispell.el assumes you use ispell, if you choose aspell say | |
1406 | ||
1407 | @example | |
1408 | (setq ispell-program-name "aspell") | |
1409 | @end example | |
1410 | @noindent | |
91af3942 | 1411 | |
4009494e GM |
1412 | in your Emacs configuration file. |
1413 | ||
1414 | If you want your outgoing messages to be spell-checked, say | |
1415 | ||
1416 | @example | |
1417 | (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message) | |
1418 | @end example | |
1419 | @noindent | |
1420 | ||
1421 | In your ~/.gnus.el, if you prefer on-the-fly spell-checking say | |
1422 | ||
1423 | @example | |
1424 | (add-hook 'message-mode-hook (lambda () (flyspell-mode 1))) | |
1425 | @end example | |
1426 | @noindent | |
1427 | ||
2b968687 | 1428 | @node FAQ 5-6 |
4009494e GM |
1429 | @subsubheading Question 5.6 |
1430 | ||
1431 | Can I set the dictionary based on the group I'm posting to? | |
1432 | ||
1433 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1434 | ||
1435 | Yes, say something like | |
1436 | ||
1437 | @example | |
1438 | (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook | |
1439 | (lambda () | |
1440 | (cond | |
1441 | ((string-match | |
1442 | "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name)) | |
1443 | (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch8")) | |
1444 | (t | |
1445 | (ispell-change-dictionary "english"))))) | |
1446 | @end example | |
1447 | @noindent | |
91af3942 | 1448 | |
4009494e GM |
1449 | in ~/.gnus.el. Change "^de\\." and "deutsch8" to something |
1450 | that suits your needs. | |
1451 | ||
2b968687 | 1452 | @node FAQ 5-7 |
4009494e GM |
1453 | @subsubheading Question 5.7 |
1454 | ||
1455 | Is there some kind of address-book, so I needn't remember | |
1456 | all those email addresses? | |
1457 | ||
1458 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1459 | ||
1460 | There's an very basic solution for this, mail aliases. | |
1461 | You can store your mail addresses in a ~/.mailrc file using a simple | |
1462 | alias syntax: | |
1463 | ||
1464 | @example | |
9360256a | 1465 | alias al "Al <al@@english-heritage.invalid>" |
4009494e GM |
1466 | @end example |
1467 | @noindent | |
1468 | ||
1469 | Then typing your alias (followed by a space or punctuation | |
1470 | character) on a To: or Cc: line in the message buffer will | |
1471 | cause Gnus to insert the full address for you. See the | |
1472 | node "Mail Aliases" in Message (not Gnus) manual for | |
1473 | details. | |
1474 | ||
91af3942 | 1475 | However, what you really want is the Insidious Big Brother |
4009494e GM |
1476 | Database bbdb. Get it through the XEmacs package system or from |
1477 | @uref{http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/, bbdb's homepage}. | |
1478 | Now place the following in ~/.gnus.el, to activate bbdb for Gnus: | |
1479 | ||
1480 | @example | |
1481 | (require 'bbdb) | |
1482 | (bbdb-initialize 'gnus 'message) | |
1483 | @end example | |
1484 | @noindent | |
1485 | ||
1486 | Now you probably want some general bbdb configuration, | |
1487 | place them in ~/.emacs: | |
1488 | ||
1489 | @example | |
1490 | (require 'bbdb) | |
91af3942 | 1491 | ;;If you don't live in Northern America, you should disable the |
4009494e GM |
1492 | ;;syntax check for telephone numbers by saying |
1493 | (setq bbdb-north-american-phone-numbers-p nil) | |
1494 | ;;Tell bbdb about your email address: | |
1495 | (setq bbdb-user-mail-names | |
1496 | (regexp-opt '("Your.Email@@here.invalid" | |
1497 | "Your.other@@mail.there.invalid"))) | |
1498 | ;;cycling while completing email addresses | |
1499 | (setq bbdb-complete-name-allow-cycling t) | |
1500 | ;;No popup-buffers | |
1501 | (setq bbdb-use-pop-up nil) | |
1502 | @end example | |
1503 | @noindent | |
1504 | ||
1505 | Now you should be ready to go. Say @samp{M-x bbdb RET | |
1506 | RET} to open a bbdb buffer showing all | |
1507 | entries. Say @samp{c} to create a new | |
1508 | entry, @samp{b} to search your BBDB and | |
1509 | @samp{C-o} to add a new field to an | |
1510 | entry. If you want to add a sender to the BBDB you can | |
1511 | also just hit `:' on the posting in the summary buffer and | |
1512 | you are done. When you now compose a new mail, | |
1513 | hit @samp{TAB} to cycle through know | |
1514 | recipients. | |
1515 | ||
2b968687 | 1516 | @node FAQ 5-8 |
4009494e GM |
1517 | @subsubheading Question 5.8 |
1518 | ||
1519 | Sometimes I see little images at the top of article | |
1520 | buffer. What's that and how can I send one with my | |
1521 | postings, too? | |
1522 | ||
1523 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1524 | ||
1525 | Those images are called X-Faces. They are 48*48 pixel b/w | |
1526 | pictures, encoded in a header line. If you want to include | |
1527 | one in your posts, you've got to convert some image to a | |
1528 | X-Face. So fire up some image manipulation program (say | |
1529 | Gimp), open the image you want to include, cut out the | |
1530 | relevant part, reduce color depth to 1 bit, resize to | |
1531 | 48*48 and save as bitmap. Now you should get the compface | |
91af3942 | 1532 | package from |
4009494e GM |
1533 | @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu:/pub/faces/, this site}. |
1534 | and create the actual X-face by saying | |
1535 | ||
1536 | @example | |
1537 | cat file.xbm | xbm2ikon | compface > file.face | |
1538 | cat file.face | sed 's/\\/\\\\/g;s/\"/\\\"/g;' > file.face.quoted | |
1539 | @end example | |
1540 | @noindent | |
1541 | ||
91af3942 | 1542 | If you can't use compface, there's an online X-face converter at |
4009494e GM |
1543 | @uref{http://www.dairiki.org/xface/}. |
1544 | If you use MS Windows, you could also use the WinFace program from | |
1545 | @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~walterln/winface/}. | |
1546 | Now you only have to tell Gnus to include the X-face in your postings by saying | |
1547 | ||
1548 | @example | |
1549 | (setq message-default-headers | |
1550 | (with-temp-buffer | |
1551 | (insert "X-Face: ") | |
1552 | (insert-file-contents "~/.xface") | |
1553 | (buffer-string))) | |
1554 | @end example | |
1555 | @noindent | |
1556 | ||
1557 | in ~/.gnus.el. If you use Gnus 5.10, you can simply add an entry | |
1558 | ||
1559 | @example | |
1560 | (x-face-file "~/.xface") | |
1561 | @end example | |
1562 | @noindent | |
1563 | ||
1564 | to gnus-posting-styles. | |
1565 | ||
2b968687 | 1566 | @node FAQ 5-9 |
4009494e GM |
1567 | @subsubheading Question 5.9 |
1568 | ||
1569 | Sometimes I accidentally hit r instead of f in | |
1570 | newsgroups. Can Gnus warn me, when I'm replying by mail in | |
1571 | newsgroups? | |
1572 | ||
1573 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1574 | ||
1575 | Put this in ~/.gnus.el: | |
1576 | ||
1577 | @example | |
1578 | (setq gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news t) | |
1579 | @end example | |
1580 | @noindent | |
1581 | ||
1582 | if you already use Gnus 5.10, if you still use 5.8.8 or | |
1583 | 5.9 try this instead: | |
1584 | ||
1585 | @example | |
1586 | (eval-after-load "gnus-msg" | |
1587 | '(unless (boundp 'gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news) | |
1588 | (defadvice gnus-summary-reply (around reply-in-news activate) | |
1589 | "Request confirmation when replying to news." | |
1590 | (interactive) | |
1591 | (when (or (not (gnus-news-group-p gnus-newsgroup-name)) | |
1592 | (y-or-n-p "Really reply by mail to article author? ")) | |
1593 | ad-do-it)))) | |
1594 | @end example | |
1595 | @noindent | |
1596 | ||
2b968687 | 1597 | @node FAQ 5-10 |
4009494e GM |
1598 | @subsubheading Question 5.10 |
1599 | ||
1600 | How to tell Gnus not to generate a sender header? | |
1601 | ||
1602 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1603 | ||
1604 | Since 5.10 Gnus doesn't generate a sender header by | |
1605 | default. For older Gnus' try this in ~/.gnus.el: | |
1606 | ||
1607 | @example | |
1608 | (eval-after-load "message" | |
1609 | '(add-to-list 'message-syntax-checks '(sender . disabled))) | |
1610 | @end example | |
1611 | @noindent | |
1612 | ||
2b968687 | 1613 | @node FAQ 5-11 |
4009494e GM |
1614 | @subsubheading Question 5.11 |
1615 | ||
1616 | I want Gnus to locally store copies of my send mail and | |
1617 | news, how to do it? | |
1618 | ||
1619 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1620 | ||
1621 | You must set the variable gnus-message-archive-group to do | |
1622 | this. You can set it to a string giving the name of the | |
1623 | group where the copies shall go or like in the example | |
1624 | below use a function which is evaluated and which returns | |
1625 | the group to use. | |
1626 | ||
1627 | @example | |
1628 | (setq gnus-message-archive-group | |
9360256a GM |
1629 | '((if (message-news-p) |
1630 | "nnml:Send-News" | |
1631 | "nnml:Send-Mail"))) | |
4009494e GM |
1632 | @end example |
1633 | @noindent | |
1634 | ||
2b968687 | 1635 | @node FAQ 5-12 |
4009494e GM |
1636 | @subsubheading Question 5.12 |
1637 | ||
2b968687 MB |
1638 | I want Gnus to kill the buffer after successful sending instead of keeping |
1639 | it alive as "Sent mail to...", how to do it? | |
1640 | ||
1641 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1642 | ||
1643 | Add this to your ~/.gnus: | |
1644 | ||
1645 | @example | |
1646 | (setq message-kill-buffer-on-exit t) | |
1647 | @end example | |
1648 | @noindent | |
1649 | ||
1650 | @node FAQ 5-13 | |
1651 | @subsubheading Question 5.13 | |
1652 | ||
4009494e GM |
1653 | People tell me my Message-IDs are not correct, why |
1654 | aren't they and how to fix it? | |
1655 | ||
1656 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1657 | ||
1658 | The message-ID is an unique identifier for messages you | |
1659 | send. To make it unique, Gnus need to know which machine | |
1660 | name to put after the "@@". If the name of the machine | |
1661 | where Gnus is running isn't suitable (it probably isn't | |
1662 | at most private machines) you can tell Gnus what to use | |
1663 | by saying: | |
1664 | ||
1665 | @example | |
1666 | (setq message-user-fqdn "yourmachine.yourdomain.tld") | |
1667 | @end example | |
1668 | @noindent | |
1669 | ||
1670 | in ~/.gnus.el. If you use Gnus 5.9 or earlier, you can use this | |
91af3942 | 1671 | instead (works for newer versions as well): |
4009494e GM |
1672 | |
1673 | @example | |
1674 | (eval-after-load "message" | |
1675 | '(let ((fqdn "yourmachine.yourdomain.tld"));; <-- Edit this! | |
1676 | (if (boundp 'message-user-fqdn) | |
1677 | (setq message-user-fqdn fqdn) | |
1678 | (gnus-message 1 "Redefining `message-make-fqdn'.") | |
1679 | (defun message-make-fqdn () | |
1680 | "Return user's fully qualified domain name." | |
1681 | fqdn)))) | |
1682 | @end example | |
1683 | @noindent | |
1684 | ||
1685 | If you have no idea what to insert for | |
1686 | "yourmachine.yourdomain.tld", you've got several | |
1687 | choices. You can either ask your provider if he allows | |
1688 | you to use something like | |
1689 | yourUserName.userfqdn.provider.net, or you can use | |
1690 | somethingUnique.yourdomain.tld if you own the domain | |
1691 | yourdomain.tld, or you can register at a service which | |
01c52d31 | 1692 | gives private users a FQDN for free. |
4009494e GM |
1693 | |
1694 | Finally you can tell Gnus not to generate a Message-ID | |
1695 | for News at all (and letting the server do the job) by saying | |
1696 | ||
1697 | @example | |
1698 | (setq message-required-news-headers | |
1699 | (remove' Message-ID message-required-news-headers)) | |
1700 | @end example | |
1701 | @noindent | |
1702 | ||
1703 | you can also tell Gnus not to generate Message-IDs for mail by saying | |
1704 | ||
1705 | @example | |
1706 | (setq message-required-mail-headers | |
1707 | (remove' Message-ID message-required-mail-headers)) | |
1708 | @end example | |
1709 | @noindent | |
1710 | ||
1711 | , however some mail servers don't generate proper | |
1712 | Message-IDs, too, so test if your Mail Server behaves | |
1713 | correctly by sending yourself a Mail and looking at the Message-ID. | |
1714 | ||
1715 | @node FAQ 6 - Old messages | |
1716 | @subsection Old messages | |
1717 | ||
1718 | @menu | |
2b968687 MB |
1719 | * FAQ 6-1:: How to import my old mail into Gnus? |
1720 | * FAQ 6-2:: How to archive interesting messages? | |
1721 | * FAQ 6-3:: How to search for a specific message? | |
1722 | * FAQ 6-4:: How to get rid of old unwanted mail? | |
1723 | * FAQ 6-5:: I want that all read messages are expired (at least in | |
1724 | some groups). How to do it? | |
1725 | * FAQ 6-6:: I don't want expiration to delete my mails but to move | |
1726 | them to another group. | |
4009494e GM |
1727 | @end menu |
1728 | ||
2b968687 | 1729 | @node FAQ 6-1 |
4009494e GM |
1730 | @subsubheading Question 6.1 |
1731 | ||
1732 | How to import my old mail into Gnus? | |
1733 | ||
1734 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1735 | ||
1736 | The easiest way is to tell your old mail program to | |
1737 | export the messages in mbox format. Most Unix mailers | |
1738 | are able to do this, if you come from the MS Windows | |
1739 | world, you may find tools at | |
1740 | @uref{http://mbx2mbox.sourceforge.net/}. | |
1741 | ||
1742 | Now you've got to import this mbox file into Gnus. To do | |
1743 | this, create a nndoc group based on the mbox file by | |
1744 | saying @samp{G f /path/file.mbox RET} in | |
1745 | Group buffer. You now have read-only access to your | |
1746 | mail. If you want to import the messages to your normal | |
1747 | Gnus mail groups hierarchy, enter the nndoc group you've | |
1748 | just created by saying @samp{C-u RET} | |
1749 | (thus making sure all messages are retrieved), mark all | |
1750 | messages by saying @samp{M P b} and | |
1751 | either copy them to the desired group by saying | |
1752 | @samp{B c name.of.group RET} or send them | |
1753 | through nnmail-split-methods (respool them) by saying | |
1754 | @samp{B r}. | |
1755 | ||
2b968687 | 1756 | @node FAQ 6-2 |
4009494e GM |
1757 | @subsubheading Question 6.2 |
1758 | ||
1759 | How to archive interesting messages? | |
1760 | ||
1761 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1762 | ||
1763 | If you stumble across an interesting message, say in | |
1764 | gnu.emacs.gnus and want to archive it there are several | |
1765 | solutions. The first and easiest is to save it to a file | |
1766 | by saying @samp{O f}. However, wouldn't | |
1767 | it be much more convenient to have more direct access to | |
1768 | the archived message from Gnus? If you say yes, put this | |
1769 | snippet by Frank Haun <pille3003@@fhaun.de> in | |
1770 | ~/.gnus.el: | |
1771 | ||
1772 | @example | |
1773 | (defun my-archive-article (&optional n) | |
1774 | "Copies one or more article(s) to a corresponding `nnml:' group, e.g. | |
1775 | `gnus.ding' goes to `nnml:1.gnus.ding'. And `nnml:List-gnus.ding' goes | |
1776 | to `nnml:1.List-gnus-ding'. | |
1777 | ||
1778 | Use process marks or mark a region in the summary buffer to archive | |
1779 | more then one article." | |
1780 | (interactive "P") | |
1781 | (let ((archive-name | |
1782 | (format | |
1783 | "nnml:1.%s" | |
1784 | (if (featurep 'xemacs) | |
1785 | (replace-in-string gnus-newsgroup-name "^.*:" "") | |
1786 | (replace-regexp-in-string "^.*:" "" gnus-newsgroup-name))))) | |
1787 | (gnus-summary-copy-article n archive-name))) | |
1788 | @end example | |
1789 | @noindent | |
1790 | ||
1791 | You can now say @samp{M-x | |
1792 | my-archive-article} in summary buffer to | |
1793 | archive the article under the cursor in a nnml | |
1794 | group. (Change nnml to your preferred back end) | |
1795 | ||
1796 | Of course you can also make sure the cache is enabled by saying | |
1797 | ||
1798 | @example | |
1799 | (setq gnus-use-cache t) | |
1800 | @end example | |
1801 | @noindent | |
1802 | ||
1803 | then you only have to set either the tick or the dormant | |
1804 | mark for articles you want to keep, setting the read | |
1805 | mark will remove them from cache. | |
1806 | ||
2b968687 | 1807 | @node FAQ 6-3 |
4009494e GM |
1808 | @subsubheading Question 6.3 |
1809 | ||
1810 | How to search for a specific message? | |
1811 | ||
1812 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1813 | ||
1814 | There are several ways for this, too. For a posting from | |
1815 | a Usenet group the easiest solution is probably to ask | |
1816 | @uref{http://groups.google.com, groups.google.com}, | |
1817 | if you found the posting there, tell Google to display | |
1818 | the raw message, look for the message-id, and say | |
1819 | @samp{M-^ the@@message.id RET} in a | |
1820 | summary buffer. | |
1821 | Since Gnus 5.10 there's also a Gnus interface for | |
1822 | groups.google.com which you can call with | |
1823 | @samp{G W}) in group buffer. | |
1824 | ||
1825 | Another idea which works for both mail and news groups | |
1826 | is to enter the group where the message you are | |
1827 | searching is and use the standard Emacs search | |
1828 | @samp{C-s}, it's smart enough to look at | |
1829 | articles in collapsed threads, too. If you want to | |
1830 | search bodies, too try @samp{M-s} | |
1831 | instead. Further on there are the | |
1832 | gnus-summary-limit-to-foo functions, which can help you, | |
1833 | too. | |
1834 | ||
1835 | Of course you can also use grep to search through your | |
1836 | local mail, but this is both slow for big archives and | |
1837 | inconvenient since you are not displaying the found mail | |
1838 | in Gnus. Here comes nnir into action. Nnir is a front end | |
1839 | to search engines like swish-e or swish++ and | |
1840 | others. You index your mail with one of those search | |
333f9019 | 1841 | engines and with the help of nnir you can search through |
4009494e GM |
1842 | the indexed mail and generate a temporary group with all |
1843 | messages which met your search criteria. If this sound | |
1844 | cool to you get nnir.el from | |
1845 | @uref{ftp://ls6-ftp.cs.uni-dortmund.de/pub/src/emacs/} | |
1846 | or @uref{ftp://ftp.is.informatik.uni-duisburg.de/pub/src/emacs/}. | |
1847 | Instructions on how to use it are at the top of the file. | |
1848 | ||
2b968687 | 1849 | @node FAQ 6-4 |
4009494e GM |
1850 | @subsubheading Question 6.4 |
1851 | ||
1852 | How to get rid of old unwanted mail? | |
1853 | ||
1854 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1855 | ||
1856 | You can of course just mark the mail you don't need | |
1857 | anymore by saying @samp{#} with point | |
1858 | over the mail and then say @samp{B DEL} | |
1859 | to get rid of them forever. You could also instead of | |
1860 | actually deleting them, send them to a junk-group by | |
1861 | saying @samp{B m nnml:trash-bin} which | |
1862 | you clear from time to time, but both are not the intended | |
1863 | way in Gnus. | |
1864 | ||
1865 | In Gnus, we let mail expire like news expires on a news | |
1866 | server. That means you tell Gnus the message is | |
1867 | expirable (you tell Gnus "I don't need this mail | |
1868 | anymore") by saying @samp{E} with point | |
1869 | over the mail in summary buffer. Now when you leave the | |
1870 | group, Gnus looks at all messages which you marked as | |
1871 | expirable before and if they are old enough (default is | |
1872 | older than a week) they are deleted. | |
1873 | ||
2b968687 | 1874 | @node FAQ 6-5 |
4009494e GM |
1875 | @subsubheading Question 6.5 |
1876 | ||
1877 | I want that all read messages are expired (at least in | |
1878 | some groups). How to do it? | |
1879 | ||
1880 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1881 | ||
1882 | If you want all read messages to be expired (e.g. in | |
1883 | mailing lists where there's an online archive), you've | |
1884 | got two choices: auto-expire and | |
1885 | total-expire. Auto-expire means, that every article | |
1886 | which has no marks set and is selected for reading is | |
1887 | marked as expirable, Gnus hits @samp{E} | |
1888 | for you every time you read a message. Total-expire | |
1889 | follows a slightly different approach, here all article | |
1890 | where the read mark is set are expirable. | |
1891 | ||
1892 | To activate auto-expire, include auto-expire in the | |
1893 | Group parameters for the group. (Hit @samp{G | |
1894 | c} in summary buffer with point over the | |
1895 | group to change group parameters). For total-expire add | |
1896 | total-expire to the group-parameters. | |
1897 | ||
1898 | Which method you choose is merely a matter of taste: | |
1899 | Auto-expire is faster, but it doesn't play together with | |
1900 | Adaptive Scoring, so if you want to use this feature, | |
1901 | you should use total-expire. | |
1902 | ||
1903 | If you want a message to be excluded from expiration in | |
1904 | a group where total or auto expire is active, set either | |
1905 | tick (hit @samp{u}) or dormant mark (hit | |
1906 | @samp{u}), when you use auto-expire, you | |
1907 | can also set the read mark (hit | |
1908 | @samp{d}). | |
1909 | ||
2b968687 | 1910 | @node FAQ 6-6 |
4009494e GM |
1911 | @subsubheading Question 6.6 |
1912 | ||
1913 | I don't want expiration to delete my mails but to move them | |
1914 | to another group. | |
1915 | ||
1916 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1917 | ||
1918 | Say something like this in ~/.gnus.el: | |
1919 | ||
1920 | @example | |
1921 | (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired") | |
1922 | @end example | |
1923 | @noindent | |
1924 | ||
1925 | (If you want to change the value of nnmail-expiry-target | |
1926 | on a per group basis see the question "How can I disable | |
1927 | threading in some (e.g. mail-) groups, or set other | |
1928 | variables specific for some groups?") | |
1929 | ||
1930 | @node FAQ 7 - Gnus in a dial-up environment | |
1931 | @subsection Gnus in a dial-up environment | |
1932 | ||
1933 | @menu | |
2b968687 MB |
1934 | * FAQ 7-1:: I don't have a permanent connection to the net, how can I |
1935 | minimize the time I've got to be connected? | |
1936 | * FAQ 7-2:: So what was this thing about the Agent? | |
1937 | * FAQ 7-3:: I want to store article bodies on disk, too. How to do | |
1938 | it? | |
1939 | * FAQ 7-4:: How to tell Gnus not to try to send mails / postings | |
1940 | while I'm offline? | |
4009494e GM |
1941 | @end menu |
1942 | ||
2b968687 | 1943 | @node FAQ 7-1 |
4009494e GM |
1944 | @subsubheading Question 7.1 |
1945 | ||
1946 | I don't have a permanent connection to the net, how can | |
1947 | I minimize the time I've got to be connected? | |
1948 | ||
1949 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1950 | ||
1951 | You've got basically two options: Either you use the | |
1952 | Gnus Agent (see below) for this, or you can install | |
1953 | programs which fetch your news and mail to your local | |
1954 | disk and Gnus reads the stuff from your local | |
1955 | machine. | |
1956 | ||
1957 | If you want to follow the second approach, you need a | |
1958 | program which fetches news and offers them to Gnus, a | |
1959 | program which does the same for mail and a program which | |
1960 | receives the mail you write from Gnus and sends them | |
1961 | when you're online. | |
1962 | ||
1963 | Let's talk about Unix systems first: For the news part, | |
91af3942 | 1964 | the easiest solution is a small nntp server like |
4009494e GM |
1965 | @uref{http://www.leafnode.org/, Leafnode} or |
1966 | @uref{http://infa.abo.fi/~patrik/sn/, sn}, | |
1967 | of course you can also install a full featured news | |
91af3942 PE |
1968 | server like |
1969 | @uref{http://www.isc.org/products/INN/, inn}. | |
4009494e GM |
1970 | Then you want to fetch your Mail, popular choices |
1971 | are @uref{http://www.catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/, fetchmail} | |
66627fa9 | 1972 | and @uref{http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/, getmail}. |
4009494e GM |
1973 | You should tell those to write the mail to your disk and |
1974 | Gnus to read it from there. Last but not least the mail | |
1975 | sending part: This can be done with every MTA like | |
1976 | @uref{http://www.sendmail.org/, sendmail}, | |
1977 | @uref{http://www.qmail.org/, postfix}, | |
1978 | @uref{http://www.exim.org/, exim} or | |
1979 | @uref{http://www.qmail.org/, qmail}. | |
1980 | ||
91af3942 PE |
1981 | On windows boxes I'd vote for |
1982 | @uref{http://www.tglsoft.de/, Hamster}, | |
4009494e GM |
1983 | it's a small freeware, open-source program which fetches |
1984 | your mail and news from remote servers and offers them | |
1985 | to Gnus (or any other mail and/or news reader) via nntp | |
1986 | respectively POP3 or IMAP. It also includes a smtp | |
1987 | server for receiving mails from Gnus. | |
1988 | ||
2b968687 | 1989 | @node FAQ 7-2 |
4009494e GM |
1990 | @subsubheading Question 7.2 |
1991 | ||
1992 | So what was this thing about the Agent? | |
1993 | ||
1994 | @subsubheading Answer | |
1995 | ||
1996 | The Gnus agent is part of Gnus, it allows you to fetch | |
1997 | mail and news and store them on disk for reading them | |
1998 | later when you're offline. It kind of mimics offline | |
1999 | newsreaders like e.g. Forte Agent. If you want to use | |
2000 | the Agent place the following in ~/.gnus.el if you are | |
2001 | still using 5.8.8 or 5.9 (it's the default since 5.10): | |
2002 | ||
2003 | @example | |
2004 | (setq gnus-agent t) | |
2005 | @end example | |
2006 | @noindent | |
2007 | ||
2008 | Now you've got to select the servers whose groups can be | |
2009 | stored locally. To do this, open the server buffer | |
2010 | (that is press @samp{^} while in the | |
2011 | group buffer). Now select a server by moving point to | |
2012 | the line naming that server. Finally, agentize the | |
2013 | server by typing @samp{J a}. If you | |
2014 | make a mistake, or change your mind, you can undo this | |
2015 | action by typing @samp{J r}. When | |
2016 | you're done, type 'q' to return to the group buffer. | |
2017 | Now the next time you enter a group on a agentized | |
2018 | server, the headers will be stored on disk and read from | |
2019 | there the next time you enter the group. | |
2020 | ||
2b968687 | 2021 | @node FAQ 7-3 |
4009494e GM |
2022 | @subsubheading Question 7.3 |
2023 | ||
2024 | I want to store article bodies on disk, too. How to do it? | |
2025 | ||
2026 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2027 | ||
2028 | You can tell the agent to automatically fetch the bodies | |
2029 | of articles which fulfill certain predicates, this is | |
2030 | done in a special buffer which can be reached by | |
2031 | saying @samp{J c} in group | |
2032 | buffer. Please refer to the documentation for | |
2033 | information which predicates are possible and how | |
2034 | exactly to do it. | |
2035 | ||
2036 | Further on you can tell the agent manually which | |
2037 | articles to store on disk. There are two ways to do | |
2038 | this: Number one: In the summary buffer, process mark a | |
2039 | set of articles that shall be stored in the agent by | |
2040 | saying @samp{#} with point over the | |
2041 | article and then type @samp{J s}. The | |
2042 | other possibility is to set, again in the summary | |
2043 | buffer, downloadable (%) marks for the articles you | |
2044 | want by typing @samp{@@} with point over | |
2045 | the article and then typing @samp{J u}. | |
2046 | What's the difference? Well, process marks are erased as | |
2047 | soon as you exit the summary buffer while downloadable | |
2048 | marks are permanent. You can actually set downloadable | |
2049 | marks in several groups then use fetch session ('J s' in | |
2050 | the GROUP buffer) to fetch all of those articles. The | |
2051 | only downside is that fetch session also fetches all of | |
2052 | the headers for every selected group on an agentized | |
2053 | server. Depending on the volume of headers, the initial | |
2054 | fetch session could take hours. | |
2055 | ||
2b968687 | 2056 | @node FAQ 7-4 |
4009494e GM |
2057 | @subsubheading Question 7.4 |
2058 | ||
2059 | How to tell Gnus not to try to send mails / postings | |
2060 | while I'm offline? | |
2061 | ||
2062 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2063 | ||
2064 | All you've got to do is to tell Gnus when you are online | |
2065 | (plugged) and when you are offline (unplugged), the rest | |
2066 | works automatically. You can toggle plugged/unplugged | |
2067 | state by saying @samp{J j} in group | |
2068 | buffer. To start Gnus unplugged say @samp{M-x | |
2069 | gnus-unplugged} instead of | |
2070 | @samp{M-x gnus}. Note that for this to | |
2071 | work, the agent must be active. | |
2072 | ||
2073 | @node FAQ 8 - Getting help | |
2074 | @subsection Getting help | |
2075 | ||
2076 | @menu | |
2b968687 MB |
2077 | * FAQ 8-1:: How to find information and help inside Emacs? |
2078 | * FAQ 8-2:: I can't find anything in the Gnus manual about X (e.g. | |
2079 | attachments, PGP, MIME...), is it not documented? | |
2080 | * FAQ 8-3:: Which websites should I know? | |
2081 | * FAQ 8-4:: Which mailing lists and newsgroups are there? | |
2082 | * FAQ 8-5:: Where to report bugs? | |
2083 | * FAQ 8-6:: I need real-time help, where to find it? | |
4009494e GM |
2084 | @end menu |
2085 | ||
2b968687 | 2086 | @node FAQ 8-1 |
4009494e GM |
2087 | @subsubheading Question 8.1 |
2088 | ||
2089 | How to find information and help inside Emacs? | |
2090 | ||
2091 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2092 | ||
2093 | The first stop should be the Gnus manual (Say | |
2094 | @samp{C-h i d m Gnus RET} to start the | |
2095 | Gnus manual, then walk through the menus or do a | |
2096 | full-text search with @samp{s}). Then | |
2097 | there are the general Emacs help commands starting with | |
2098 | C-h, type @samp{C-h ? ?} to get a list | |
2099 | of all available help commands and their meaning. Finally | |
2100 | @samp{M-x apropos-command} lets you | |
2101 | search through all available functions and @samp{M-x | |
2102 | apropos} searches the bound variables. | |
2103 | ||
2b968687 | 2104 | @node FAQ 8-2 |
4009494e GM |
2105 | @subsubheading Question 8.2 |
2106 | ||
2107 | I can't find anything in the Gnus manual about X | |
2108 | (e.g. attachments, PGP, MIME...), is it not documented? | |
2109 | ||
2110 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2111 | ||
3d439cd1 CY |
2112 | There's not only the Gnus manual but also the manuals for message, |
2113 | emacs-mime, sieve, EasyPG Assistant, and pgg. Those packages are | |
2114 | distributed with Gnus and used by Gnus but aren't really part of core | |
2115 | Gnus, so they are documented in different info files, you should have | |
2116 | a look in those manuals, too. | |
4009494e | 2117 | |
2b968687 | 2118 | @node FAQ 8-3 |
4009494e GM |
2119 | @subsubheading Question 8.3 |
2120 | ||
2121 | Which websites should I know? | |
2122 | ||
2123 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2124 | ||
66627fa9 | 2125 | The most important one is the |
4009494e | 2126 | @uref{http://www.gnus.org, official Gnus website}. |
4009494e GM |
2127 | |
2128 | Tell me about other sites which are interesting. | |
2129 | ||
2b968687 | 2130 | @node FAQ 8-4 |
4009494e GM |
2131 | @subsubheading Question 8.4 |
2132 | ||
2133 | Which mailing lists and newsgroups are there? | |
2134 | ||
2135 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2136 | ||
9b3ebcb6 | 2137 | There's the newsgroup gnu.emacs.gnus (also available as |
91af3942 | 2138 | @uref{http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.user, |
2b968687 MB |
2139 | gmane.emacs.gnus.user}) which deals with general Gnus |
2140 | questions. If you have questions about development versions of | |
2141 | Gnus, you should better ask on the ding mailing list, see below. | |
4009494e GM |
2142 | |
2143 | If you want to stay in the big8, | |
d7ca410a | 2144 | news.software.readers is also read by some Gnus |
4009494e | 2145 | users (but chances for qualified help are much better in |
2b968687 | 2146 | the above groups). If you speak German, there's |
4009494e GM |
2147 | de.comm.software.gnus. |
2148 | ||
9b3ebcb6 MB |
2149 | The ding mailing list (ding@@gnus.org) deals with development of |
2150 | Gnus. You can read the ding list via NNTP, too under the name | |
91af3942 | 2151 | @uref{http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general, |
9b3ebcb6 MB |
2152 | gmane.emacs.gnus.general} from news.gmane.org. |
2153 | ||
2b968687 | 2154 | @node FAQ 8-5 |
4009494e GM |
2155 | @subsubheading Question 8.5 |
2156 | ||
2157 | Where to report bugs? | |
2158 | ||
2159 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2160 | ||
2161 | Say @samp{M-x gnus-bug}, this will start | |
91af3942 | 2162 | a message to the |
4009494e GM |
2163 | @email{bugs@@gnus.org, gnus bug mailing list} |
2164 | including information about your environment which make | |
2165 | it easier to help you. | |
2166 | ||
2b968687 | 2167 | @node FAQ 8-6 |
4009494e GM |
2168 | @subsubheading Question 8.6 |
2169 | ||
2170 | I need real-time help, where to find it? | |
2171 | ||
2172 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2173 | ||
2174 | Point your IRC client to irc.freenode.net, channel #gnus. | |
2175 | ||
2176 | @node FAQ 9 - Tuning Gnus | |
2177 | @subsection Tuning Gnus | |
2178 | ||
2179 | @menu | |
2b968687 MB |
2180 | * FAQ 9-1:: Starting Gnus is really slow, how to speed it up? |
2181 | * FAQ 9-2:: How to speed up the process of entering a group? | |
2182 | * FAQ 9-3:: Sending mail becomes slower and slower, what's up? | |
4009494e GM |
2183 | @end menu |
2184 | ||
2b968687 | 2185 | @node FAQ 9-1 |
4009494e GM |
2186 | @subsubheading Question 9.1 |
2187 | ||
2188 | Starting Gnus is really slow, how to speed it up? | |
2189 | ||
2190 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2191 | ||
a98edce9 | 2192 | The reason for this could be the way Gnus reads its |
4009494e GM |
2193 | active file, see the node "The Active File" in the Gnus |
2194 | manual for things you might try to speed the process up. | |
2195 | An other idea would be to byte compile your ~/.gnus.el (say | |
2196 | @samp{M-x byte-compile-file RET ~/.gnus.el | |
2197 | RET} to do it). Finally, if you have require | |
2198 | statements in your .gnus, you could replace them with | |
2199 | eval-after-load, which loads the stuff not at startup | |
2200 | time, but when it's needed. Say you've got this in your | |
2201 | ~/.gnus.el: | |
2202 | ||
2203 | @example | |
2204 | (require 'message) | |
2205 | (add-to-list 'message-syntax-checks '(sender . disabled)) | |
2206 | @end example | |
2207 | @noindent | |
2208 | ||
2209 | then as soon as you start Gnus, message.el is loaded. If | |
2210 | you replace it with | |
2211 | ||
2212 | @example | |
2213 | (eval-after-load "message" | |
2214 | '(add-to-list 'message-syntax-checks '(sender . disabled))) | |
2215 | @end example | |
2216 | @noindent | |
2217 | ||
2218 | it's loaded when it's needed. | |
2219 | ||
2b968687 | 2220 | @node FAQ 9-2 |
4009494e GM |
2221 | @subsubheading Question 9.2 |
2222 | ||
2223 | How to speed up the process of entering a group? | |
2224 | ||
2225 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2226 | ||
2227 | A speed killer is setting the variable | |
2228 | gnus-fetch-old-headers to anything different from nil, | |
2229 | so don't do this if speed is an issue. To speed up | |
2230 | building of summary say | |
2231 | ||
2232 | @example | |
2233 | (gnus-compile) | |
2234 | @end example | |
2235 | @noindent | |
2236 | ||
2237 | at the bottom of your ~/.gnus.el, this will make gnus | |
2238 | byte-compile things like | |
91af3942 | 2239 | gnus-summary-line-format. |
4009494e GM |
2240 | then you could increase the value of gc-cons-threshold |
2241 | by saying something like | |
2242 | ||
2243 | @example | |
2244 | (setq gc-cons-threshold 3500000) | |
2245 | @end example | |
2246 | @noindent | |
2247 | ||
2248 | in ~/.emacs. If you don't care about width of CJK | |
2249 | characters or use Gnus 5.10 or younger together with a | |
2250 | recent GNU Emacs, you should say | |
2251 | ||
2252 | @example | |
2253 | (setq gnus-use-correct-string-widths nil) | |
2254 | @end example | |
2255 | @noindent | |
91af3942 | 2256 | |
4009494e GM |
2257 | in ~/.gnus.el (thanks to Jesper harder for the last |
2258 | two suggestions). Finally if you are still using 5.8.8 | |
2259 | or 5.9 and experience speed problems with summary | |
2260 | buffer generation, you definitely should update to | |
2261 | 5.10 since there quite some work on improving it has | |
2262 | been done. | |
2263 | ||
2b968687 | 2264 | @node FAQ 9-3 |
4009494e GM |
2265 | @subsubheading Question 9.3 |
2266 | ||
2267 | Sending mail becomes slower and slower, what's up? | |
2268 | ||
2269 | @subsubheading Answer | |
2270 | ||
2271 | The reason could be that you told Gnus to archive the | |
2272 | messages you wrote by setting | |
2273 | gnus-message-archive-group. Try to use a nnml group | |
2274 | instead of an archive group, this should bring you back | |
2275 | to normal speed. | |
2276 | ||
2277 | @node FAQ - Glossary | |
2278 | @subsection Glossary | |
2279 | ||
2280 | @table @dfn | |
2281 | ||
2282 | @item ~/.gnus.el | |
2283 | When the term ~/.gnus.el is used it just means your Gnus | |
2284 | configuration file. You might as well call it ~/.gnus or | |
2285 | specify another name. | |
2286 | ||
2287 | @item Back End | |
2288 | In Gnus terminology a back end is a virtual server, a layer | |
2289 | between core Gnus and the real NNTP-, POP3-, IMAP- or | |
2290 | whatever-server which offers Gnus a standardized interface | |
2291 | to functions like "get message", "get Headers" etc. | |
2292 | ||
2293 | @item Emacs | |
2294 | When the term Emacs is used in this FAQ, it means either GNU | |
2295 | Emacs or XEmacs. | |
2296 | ||
2297 | @item Message | |
2298 | In this FAQ message means a either a mail or a posting to a | |
2299 | Usenet Newsgroup or to some other fancy back end, no matter | |
2300 | of which kind it is. | |
2301 | ||
2302 | @item MUA | |
2303 | MUA is an acronym for Mail User Agent, it's the program you | |
2304 | use to read and write e-mails. | |
2305 | ||
2306 | @item NUA | |
2307 | NUA is an acronym for News User Agent, it's the program you | |
2308 | use to read and write Usenet news. | |
2309 | ||
2310 | @end table |